Author: Walsh, Tom

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: November 2013

Editor’s note: This update replaces the January 2011 practice brief “Security Risk Analysis and Management: An Overview.”


Managing risks is an essential step in operating any business. It’s impossible to eliminate all threats; however, healthcare organizati....

Author: Miaoulis, William M

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: November 2013

Editor’s note: This update replaces the April 2004 and the November 2010 practice briefs titled “A HIPAA Security Overview.”


The HIPAA security rule has remained unchanged since its implementation more than a decade ago. However, the Health Information Technology for Economic a....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: November 2013

This 2013 practice brief version has been retired and is retained here for historical purposes. Read the 2016 updated version of this Practice Brief here.



The Privacy Rule portion of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 defines a "business....

Author: Hicks, Andrew

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2014

Some healthcare business associates are still asking if HITECH-HIPAA impacts them. The answer is just as important to their affiliated healthcare providers.


Thousands of companies are now legally obligated to comply with the HITECH-HIPAA regulations because of their busines....

Author:

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2014

Many health information management (HIM) experts have wondered whether there is protected health information (PHI) on the black market. In short, the answer is “yes.” According to a 2012 Ponemon Institute study, 90 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed have had at least....

Author: Cacciatore, Victoria; Downing, Katherine

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2014

Criminal attacks on healthcare systems have risen 100 percent since 2010, according to a recent Ponemon study.1 This makes it obvious that the privacy and security of patient health information is vulnerable and highly susceptible to data breach. The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule became e....

Author: Asmonga, Donald D.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2015

The wait for the second round of mandated privacy and security audits from the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) continues. OCR is currently working through final details for the revised audit plan as they await finalization of new technolog....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2015

In movies and on television lately, Hollywood has made encryption and decryption look exciting, glamorous, and world-saving. The film The Imitation Game and the BBC show The Bletchley Circle chronicle how British code breakers decrypted military strategy codes from the Nazi encryption tool....

Author: Lewis, Sharon; McLendon, Kelly

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2015

HIPAA uses the term “satisfactory assurances” four times in the text of its Privacy and Security Rules. Each time the statement is used it describes a covered entity’s (CE) responsibility to obtain satisfactory assurances from a business associate who creates, receives, maintains, or tran....

Author: Lucci, Susan; Walsh, Tom

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2015

One of the most alarming statistics in the news, which is growing with intent and severity, is the prevalence of cyber-attacks, particularly in healthcare. It is an alarming trend that has gained a good deal of attention. For example, in July 2015, UCLA reported that up to 4.5 million pati....