The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued an “improved web tool that puts important information into the hands of individuals, empowering them to better identify recent breaches of health information and learn how all breaches of health information are investigated and successfully resolved.” The tool, called “The HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool (HBRT) allows individuals to navigate the breach reporting website so they can find information relating to data breaches, and allows organizations to report a data breach with more ease.
The tool is also designed to provide guidance to the health care industry on the most recent threats, and how data breaches are resolved by the OCR, “which can help industry improve the security posture of their organizations.”
New features of HBRT include:
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Enhanced functionality that highlights breaches currently under investigation and reported within the last 24 months
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New archive that includes all older breaches and information about how breaches were resolved
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Improved navigation to additional breach information; and
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Tips for consumers.
OCR plans to expand and improve the tool as it receives additional feedback from consumers and organizations.
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