HIPAA Questions and Answers

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent emails to healthcare providers last November 2017 to explain the prohibited use of text messages in…

Can healthcare organizations and its employees use Google Voice? Is it HIPAA compliant? Google Voice is a telephony service that provides voicemail and voicemail transcription…

People including doctors and nurses use chat platforms for communication. The question is whether these platforms are acceptable for sending PHI? A popular chat platform…

Healthcare organizations are not prohibited by HIPAA to use cloud services. Cloud services allow organizations to lower their IT costs. But there are rules to…

Many HIPAA covered entities do not fully understand the HIPAA Conduit Exception Rule. As a result, there are services that are misclassified as conduit when…

What is PHI? PHI is a commonly used term in healthcare, but some people do not fully understand what it means. Let’s talk about PHI…

HIPAA-covered entities are responsible for making sure that the transmission of protected health information by email is secured. The entity may choose any HIPAA compliant…

The HIPAA Security Rule requires the effective management of information access. Employees who are granted access to protected health information must have proper authorization. But…

It is a common practice today for covered entities to use cloud storage services. Is Microsoft OneDrive HIPAA compliant? Can it be used by covered…

Bill Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA on August 21, 1996. The HIPAA ensured the continuity of health insurance coverage…

Under certain circumstances, texting Protected Health Information (PHI) can be deemed as a violation of HIPAA. The classification as a violation is dependent upon the…

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is an important piece of legislation, first introduced in 1996. But, why is HIPAA so important? How…

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was introduced. The Act contained many new rules for healthcare organizations across the states, so…

Are Emails HIPAA Compliant? The changes made to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 2013 failed to clear much of the ambiguity…

The use of electronic or “e-signatures” has seen an increase in recent years in many sectors, including the healthcare industry. However, for some time there…

Telemedicine includes any medical professional or healthcare organization that provides a remote service to patients in their homes or in community centres. The HIPAA Privacy…

Many dental offices and dental practitioners are self-contained entities. However, HIPAA rules for dentists apply to any dental office that may send claims, eligibility requests,…

Dropbox is a popular file hosting service used by many organizations to share files. Dropbox claims that it has implemented measures that now make its…

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was introduced. In the two decades since, it has proven to be one of…

HIPAA compliance rules for telemedicine-which includes any medical professional or healthcare organization that provides a remote service to patients in their homes or in community…

There has been a huge rise in the number of healthcare workers and other HIPAA-covered entities relying on mobile technology in their day-to-day lives. This…

Since its implementation two decades ago, there has been much ambiguity in whether the use of SMS is HIPAA compliant. HIPAA does not explicitly prohibit…

Google Drive is becoming an increasingly attractive option for many companies to store information online. It is cheaper than installing costly hardware systems and IT…

HIPAA Simplified History Legislators originally proposed HIPAA in 1996 as a means of addressing the concerns regarding the privacy and security of patient healthcare information…

Skype has been increasingly used by business as a quick and cost-effective form of communication. However, the question remains whether Skype can be used by…

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud storage service that has seen its popularity rise in recent years. Many healthcare organizations are already using Microsoft Office 365…

In is in the interest of HIPAA covered entities, business associates, and healthcare employees to take great care to ensure HIPAA Rules are not violated,…

In 2016, WhatsApp announced it was introducing end-to-end encryption for messages sent using its services. This added security measure allows for healthcare organizations to potentially…

The “cloud”-a network of servers used for data storage-has seen widespread use in recent years. It offers a convenient and flexible way for organisations-including healthcare…

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was introduced into US law. In time since, it has proven to be one of the…

The Department of Health and Human Services has recently released data revealing the frequency of the most common types of HIPAA violations. The report concerned…

It is the responsibility of HIPAA covered entities to ensure that their employees know the correct procedures for reporting a HIPAA violation. It is then…