Tag: omnibus

What exactly does HIPAA say about Email Security?

February 26, 2025

Performing daily business transactions and communications through electronic technologies is accepted, reliable, and necessary across the nation’s healthcare providers, payers and suppliers. As a result, email has become a standard in the healthcare industry as a way to conduct business activities that commonly include: Interacting with patients Real time authorizations for medical services Transcribing, accessing […]

What exactly is ePHI? Who has to worry about it? Where can it be safely located?

January 15, 2025

There is often a great deal of confusion and misinformation about what constitutes ePHI (electronic protected health information) and how to protect it under HIPAA requirements. Even once you understand ePHI and how it applies to you, the next question becomes, where is ePHI permitted? What is secure and what is not? In this post, […]

HIPAA Compliance Checklist

January 11, 2025

Our HIPAA compliance checklist was designed to help organizations understand their obligations under the law. The checklist items are not a complete list, just a starting point for your compliance program. HIPAA requires a yearly risk analysis to identify new vulnerabilities. Any business process change or new technology usage introduces new risk into an organization’s […]

Can You Send ePHI in Insecure Emails and Texts with Mutual Consent?

April 27, 2021

Email and text messaging are among the most common forms of business communication. However, if you are sending ePHI, regular texts and emails are off limits! If you are subject to HIPAA regulations, you will need mutual consent from your patients before sending ePHI insecurely via these methods. This may seem frustrating because text and […]

Opt-In Email Encryption is Too Risky for HIPAA Compliance

July 11, 2017

A majority of companies that offer email encryption for HIPAA compliance allow senders to “opt-in” to encryption on a message-by-message basis. If the sender “does nothing special” then the email will be sent in the normal/insecure manner of email. If the sender explicitly checks a box or types a keyword in the body or subject […]