It’s been six months since passage of the administration’s healthcare reform act — the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA).   As reported in newspapers around the country, that means that for those health plans that begin today:  Parents will be able to keep their young adult children on their group health plan up to [...]

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) at Stanford is appealing a California Department of Public Health (CDPH) penalty issued on April 23, 2010.  The fine of $250,000 was levied as a result of a late reporting of a security incident.  According to a September 9, 2010 press release issued by the hospital, the incident was related [...]

Here is an FBI warning that was sent out yesterday to all FBI agents and FBI Infragard members.  It is worth repeating verbatim. From: HQ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BRANCH Sent: Sat Sep 11 22:08:33 2010 Subject: Computer Security Alert A new Computer “worm” attacked several federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies yesterday.  The malicious email messages contain [...]

Released on September 1, 2010, CT TyMetrix’s Real Rate Report, which is based on empirical data “gathered from $4.1 billion in invoicing generated by over 3,500 law firm and 90,000 individual billers over three years (2007-2009),” provides unique insight on the billing practices of law firms around the country.   This report demonstrates  that it may not necessarily be the [...]

Last month, the Health Information Trust Alliance published an analysis of the 108 breaches reported to HHS from Sept. 23, 2009 (when reporting first started under the HITECH Act) to mid-July.  This review illustrates the major impact of theft on healthcare providers.   Of 108 total reported breaches, 68 were the result of theft.  Indeed, the only [...]