#hipaa

#hipaa

As a long-time social worker, Merrill started the Bone Marrow and Cancer Foundation in 1992. In working with cancer patients for the past 33 years, Merrill saw a great need to create a strong community for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers. "So 'CancerBuddy' is a platform where patients can upload their own information and swipe and to meet whoever they want to meet with based on their diagnosis, their age, their cancer center, their geographical location," says Merrill.

Every week, more than 230 million people ask ChatGPT for health and wellness advice, according to OpenAI. The company says that many see the chatbot as an "ally" to help navigate the maze of insurance, file paperwork, and become better self-advocates. In exchange, it hopes you will trust its chatbot with details about your diagnoses, medications, test results, and other private medical information.

Google is Watching/Listening: By using these features, you agree that Google can record and monitor a sample of your calls, texts, and chats. They do this to check the quality of their ad programs. Take it or Leave it: If you don't agree to being recorded, you aren't allowed to use the "Communication Features" (like click-to-call or click-to-message ads). You Are Responsible for Warning People: You must tell your employees, agents, or anyone answering these communications that they are being recorded.

OCR continues to execute its enforcement mission under its statutory and regulatory authorities regarding civil rights, exercise of conscience, and health information privacy and security, and breach notification. OCR continues to investigate complaints filed, to conduct compliance reviews, and to review breaches of unsecured protected health information. OCR will be responsive to the HIPAA trends and compliance issues within OCR's jurisdiction that are affecting the public and the regulated industry.

A treatment plan must be present in every visit note. Diagnoses listed in the chart must exactly match the billing codes. At the same time, patients expect and deserve our undivided attention. But balancing genuine human connection with the ever-growing checklist of documentation requirements is nearly impossible. Add to that the reality that we are people too, with families and demanding lives outside the office, and the strain becomes clear.

Teams will spend hours filing and managing them, only to repeat the exercise during audits. Plus, moving them between departments or into EHRs can be tedious and error-prone. And of course, storing and retrieving paper forms is inefficient and takes up space.

The healthcare landscape has undergone massive digital transformation since 1996 when the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was first enacted. We now face a surge in sophisticated cyberattacks powered by artificial intelligence (AI). According to recent data, nearly half of healthcare organizations experienced a higher volume of attacks than just a year ago, but only 29% feel prepared for AI-driven threats like deepfakes and synthetic identity fraud.

OCR found that BayCare failed to implement necessary policies for authorizing access to ePHI, leading to significant vulnerabilities in patient data security.