HIPAA, CIA & Safeguards Essay

First enforcement attain resulting from HITECH Breach tattle draw rein Blue traverse Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) $1,500,000 to settle latent violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) secretiveness and warranter Rules, Leon Rodriguez, Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), announced today. BCBST has also agreed to a corrective action plan to address gaps in its HIPAA complaisance program. The enforcement action is the first resulting from a breach report required by the Health Information Technology for sparing and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act Breach Notification Rule. The investigation followed a notice submitted by BCBST to HHS inform that 57 unencrypted computer hard drives were stolen from a leased facility in Tennessee. The drives contained the protected health schooling (PHI) of everywhere 1 million individuals, including member names , social security numbers, diagnosis codes, dates of birth, and health plan credit numbers. OCRs investigation indicated BCBST failed to implement appropriate administrative safeguards to adequately protect information remaining at the leased facility by not performing the required security evaluation in retort to operational changes. In addition, the investigation showed a failure to implement appropriate physical safeguards by not having adequate facility access controls both of these safeguards are required by the HIPAA Security Rule.This settlement sends an authoritative message that OCR expects health plans and health care providers to have in place a carefully designed, delivered, and monitored HIPAA compliance program, said OCR Director Leon Rodriguez. The HITECH Breach Notification Rule is an important enforcement tool and OCR will continue to modishly protect patients right to private and secure health information. In addition to the $1,500,000 settlement, the agreement requires BCBST to review, revise, and maintain its Privacy and Security policies and procedures, to conduct regular and robust trainings for all BCBST employees covering employee responsibilities under HIPAA, and to perform monitor reviews to discipline BCBST compliance with the corrective action plan. HHSOffice for Civil Rights enforces the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. The HIPAA Privacy Rule gives individuals rights over their protected health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive that health information. The HIPAA Security Rule protects health information in electronic form by requiring entities covered by HIPAA to utilise physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to ensure that electronic protected health information remains private and secure. The HITECH Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities to report an impermissible use or disclosure of protected health information, or a breach, of 500 individuals or more to HHS and t he media. Smaller breaches affecting less than 500 individuals must be reported to the secretary on an annual basis. Individuals who believe that a covered entity has violated their (or someone elses) health information privacy rights or committed another violation of the HIPAA Privacy or Security Rule may file a complaint with OCR at http//www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/index.html. The HHS Resolution Agreement can be be at http//www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/enforcement/examples/ resolution_agreement_and_cap.pdf.Additional information about OCRs enforcement activities can be found at http//www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/enforcement/examples/index.html.