Privacy/HIPAA

Navigating the complexities of HIPAA compliance can be overwhelming, especially when you have numerous pressing concerns in your daily practice….

Obtaining proper, legal consent for nonverbal adults is of paramount importance in the dental practice. By becoming familiar with local laws, employing effective communication strategies, involving caregivers and advocate, and maintaining documentation, dentists can provide ethical care for a vulnerable population. 

HIPAA does not prohibit the use of virtual assistants, including those who work outside of the U.S. However, as HIPAA-covered entities, dentists and the business associates they contract with are responsible for ensuring assistants are trained to safeguard patient information.

The recording of conversations between dentists and patients can pose significant risks to dental professionals, including potential HIPAA violations, loss of control over the use of the recording and legal issues related to consent. Dentists should take steps to protect patient privacy.

Following recent settlements against providers who violated HIPAA Privacy Rule, CDA encourages its members to utilize an array of tools and resources to achieve compliance

Enforcement actions against providers by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights to uphold patient rights to access their health information are increasingly common. CDA members benefit from an array of resources to support compliance efforts.

Abyde software guides practices through mandatory HIPAA compliance requirements, making compliance programs easy and sustainable for dental practices of any size.

A dentist in Maryland is among the latest group of providers to pay either a settlement fee or a civil monetary penalty and agree to take corrective actions for potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. 

All health care providers, including dentists, will soon be required to comply with a new federal regulation that aims to enhance a patient’s right to access their health information. Under the new rule, patients will have greater and, at times, immediate access to health information.

The increase and severity of  ransomware attacks prompted the Biden administration on June 2 to issue an open letter to business leaders asking them to treat the threat of ransomware attacks with great urgency.

Health care organizations are receiving postcards disguised as official communications from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, according to an alert the OCR issued yesterday. 

Recently completed audits of selected health care entities for compliance with HIPAA rules found that most of the entities met the timeliness requirements for providing breach notification to individuals but failed to comply with other provisions of the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.