WPF has written to the US Department of Health and Human Services advising them on their Request for Information (RFI) about possible changes to HIPAA privacy and security protections. The RFI has a number of suggestions that, should they become part of a formal proposal, would significantly weaken HIPAA privacy protections.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has produced a set of cybersecurity resources for healthcare provider organizations from small to large. So far, HHS has published four documents: an overview report of cybersecurity issues and practices, two technical volumes, and a toolkit. The documents focus on what an expert multistakeholder consensus group determined to be the five most prevalent cybersecurity threats and the ten core cybersecurity practices. The practices are voluntary, and utilize the NIST cybersecurity framework. The documentation is based in reality, not conjecture, and the documents are not intended to sell any particular products for any particular vendor. This has allowed for a rich and helpful documentation of current challenges along with solutions. See our overview of the four new resources.
A Baltimore mom was surprised and unhappy recently when her son came home from school missing three teeth. The source? A mobile dental clinic at a Baltimore city public school had extracted some of her son’s teeth that day. The mother didn’t realize it, but she had already consented to the dental work through signing a permission slip/release form.
This coming Thursday, WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will give a keynote speech on health privacy and security, “The New Healthcare Fraud Continuum.” Based on her latest research in health privacy, this talk will be Dixon’s first talk about the new fraud continuum, what it is, how it operates, what it means to providers and patients,
The World Privacy Forum submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration in response to its request for public input on its draft guidance on the cybersecurity of medical devices. The privacy considerations for medical devices is significant. Because there are a large number of stakeholders in the life cycle of cyber medical devices, the stakeholders are subject