The OCR announced that it is going to broaden its investigations to include incidents affecting less than 500 people.
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This means all healthcare entities, no matter how big your practice is, must take security seriously. The OCR could be at your door for even the smallest breach or any failure to comply with HIPAA.
Now more than ever before, all practices will be accountable for protecting their patient information.
OCR announced that it is is working to understand compliance issues in HIPAA-regulated entities better.
What breaches will OCR investigate?
All of them, including, but not limited to:
- Cybercrime breaches,
- Noncompliance with HIPAA regulations, and
- Business associate breaches.
OCR will prioritize breaches depending on the size of the breach, whether PHI was stolen or disposed of improperly, whether there was hacking or malware, and the type of data involved.
It is important to protect your practice now. The OCR will be starting to broaden its investigations this month.
We help our clients ensure their risk assessment is up to date and effective.
Make sure that your policies and procedures are in place and tailored for your office. Also, check to make sure that all employees are trained appropriately.
Finally, make sure your PHI is encrypted. This is the best way to protect your practice and your patients.
In our next blog post, we will keep you informed of related issues. To get this important information delivered directly to your mail box, Click here to Subscribe
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