In This Issue:

Audits and Breaches and Fines, Oh My! It’s time to make sure your HIPAA privacy and security compliance program has you covered by Elizabeth Johnson

If you don’t feel confident about your organization’s HIPAA privacy and security compliance, now is a good time to undertake a refresher. Here are a few reasons why (followed by a discussion of what you can do to improve your program)....

Tips for Successful Medical Staff Hearings by Steve Shaber

Few events are more distasteful to both hospitals and medical

staff leaders than hotly contested medical staff hearings. They often challenge medical staff’s goal of fostering collegiality and hospitals’ cultivation of trust and good relations with their physicians. Let’s begin with three observations....

Risk Analysis – a Critical Step One in Safeguarding e-PHI by Pam Scott

For hospitals and other health care providers working to secure electronic protected health information (e-PHI), a comprehensive risk analysis is a critical first step. The draft guidance on risk analysis issued on May 7, 2010, by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) offers a starting point to help hospitals and other providers identify and implement the most effective and appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of e-PHI....

The Green Card Is Finally Green Again! by Jennifer Parser

After May 11, 2010, employers being shown a strange new green card as part of the I-9 employment eligibility verification process should not assume the worst. The “permanent resident card” has been redesigned to be green in color and include biometrics in the form of a laser-engraved fingerprint, holographic images, and high-resolution microimages of all the U.S. presidents and state flags.