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Take a deep breath, this is not your typical COVID-19 blog entry. We are going to talk about everything else we need to manage in Information Security and third-party risk management programs during the crisis to keep the wheels on the bus as we make sharp turns at high speeds in response to the pandemic. Healthcare Information Security, third-party risk management, and compliance teams have been appropriately redirected in the early stages of the pandemic to support an “all-hands-on-deck” model for getting remote work scaled up, telehealth rolled out, and much more. Read More

A wave of new state privacy regulations has healthcare entities scrambling to stand up programs to address patient information protections. On the heels of ground-breaking Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates out of the EU, U.S. regulators in over 20 states are starting to incorporate privacy controls including new and proposed legislation. One of the most prominent and comprehensive new privacy laws is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This blog post provides a quick summary of the CCPA law and implications for healthcare entities. Read More

Effective vendor risk management programs require artful choreography between internal and external stakeholders, processes, and tools. Business owners and security teams must be armed with the most accurate and timely information available in order to make informed decisions and drive remediation for identified vendor security risks. The symphony of successful vendor security risk management is not one that can be played alone or with one kind of instrument. Read More

On March 5th, HIMSS announced the cancellation of their flagship national healthcare conference just days before the event was set to take place in Orlando, Florida. Just a few days earlier, the state of Florida had declared a state of emergency surrounding the global outbreak of the COVID-19 Coronavirus which has prompted cascading economic and business operational impacts for healthcare entities. The HITRUST Alliance also announced temporary changes on March 5th to their requirements for on-site assessments associated with Validated Assessments.  Read More

The move to digital healthcare is advancing innovative uses for health information that also introduce unforeseen risks to patient privacy. Federal and state regulations and standards bodies are playing catchup to stem the tide of privacy breaches and harm to patients as information disseminates across disparate healthcare systems and platforms. This blog post provides an overview and Meditology’s recommendations for implementation of the NIST Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy Through Enterprise Risk Management. Read More

The vision for 2020 healthcare security and privacy is clouded with emerging security threats, compliance and enforcement activity, and rapidly evolving business models and regulatory landscapes. However, we can also see many opportunities on the horizon this year and beyond to improve the industry’s privacy and security protections of healthcare organizations and patient information. Read More

A new structure for HIPAA violation Civil Monetary Penalties (CMP) was announced by the OCR on April 26, 2019. This change greatly reduces the financial risk of HIPAA breach violations for covered entities that can demonstrate updated security risk management plans, policies and procedures for sensitive patient data. Read More

Every pipeline has a capacity limit. Problems begin when the flow is clogged or overwhelmed. First as a small leak, then a rupture occurs where the whole pipeline is in jeopardy. Only we are not talking about fluids drowning us, it is the increasing volume of Healthcare Security Audits. How can businesses meet the security demands of healthcare clients and provide meaningful and timely responses to their security audit questionnaires? Read More