HIPAA privacy violations, stolen USB drive costs MAPFRE $2.2M

MAPFRE Life Insurance Company of Puerto Rico has accepted to pay a fine of $2.2 million and enter into a settlement with the HHS Office of Civil rights for violations of the HIPAA privacy violations and security rules that resulted in a breach in the year of August 2011.

MAPFRE had a USB drive consisting of protected health information stolen from its information technology department. Data on the drive involved member names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, impacting 2,209 individuals.

But it was prior representations to OCR of MAPFRE’s HIPAA agreement that got the company in trouble, with an actual level of non-compliance, in accordance to OCR that triggers multi-million dollar fines.

“The investigation of OCR disclosed MAPFRE’s noncompliance with the HIPAA privacy violations rules, particularly a failure to conduct its risk analysis and implement risk management plans, contrary to its prior representations, and a failure to deploy encryption or an equivalent alternative measure on its laptops and removable storage media until the day of Sept. 1, 2014,” OCR asserts in a statement. “MAPFRE also failed to execute or delayed implementing other corrective measures it informed OCR it would undertake.”

In a resolution agreement that MAPFRE accepted, OCR points out the company further failed to execute a security awareness and training program for all workers, failed to implement encryption and failed to execute reasonable and suitable policies and procedures to comply with HIPAA privacy violations rule.

Now, MAPFRE will step into a 3-year corrective action program that involves a risk analysis, a risk management plan and an initiative to implement procedures to evaluate environmental or operational changes that could impact the security of electronic protected health information.

In the last year, OCR has importantly ramped up HIPAA enforcement and the size of financial penalties, having determined that the industry wasn’t taking protection of patient data seriously enough and required a wake-up call.

After Advocate Health Care in Illinois was hit in the year of August 2016 with a $5.5 million fine—the largest to date—OCR director Jocelyn Samuels had a stern message for the industry. “We expect this settlement sends a powerful message to covered entities that they must include in a comprehensive risk analysis and risk management to make sure that individuals’ electronic protected health information is safe and secure.”

The resolution agreement and corrective action plan are available here.

 

Blood Donations prove Zika Virus to be Still Rare So Far in U.S.

By the end of this week, entire blood banks in the continental USA must start testing donated blood for contamination with the Zika infection. Several banks are doing so already, and the early outcomes demonstrate that the country has dodged a bullet — for now. Screenings in a dozen states recommends that infections of Zika virus remain exceedingly rare. Among the nearly 800,000 blood donations tested in the past 6 months or so, about forty were previously positive for the virus.

“It is great news that we are ignoring the transmission of Zika,” stated Dr. Susan Rossmann, the chief medical officer at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston.

Still, she pointed out, it might not be surprising there are so few potential positive cases, because blood banks have been dissuading individuals from donating if they recently traveled to a place in which the virus is circulating.

Blood donations screening for Zika infection is performed with tests made by Roche Molecular Systems or by collaboration between 2 medical companies, Hologic Inc. and Grifols.

The screening attempt is regulated as 2 gigantic clinical trials in which every blood donor is enrolled as a participant. All the outcomes, hence, are reported to the companies.

By the day of Friday, Roche’s machines had screened 475,000 donations in the US, excluding Puerto Rico. Merely 25 have been “initially reactive” for Zika virus, claimed Tony Hardiman, who leads the blood screening program of the company.

“Compared to Puerto Rico, it is tiny,” he stated.

Almost, 1% of the blood donors in Puerto Rico were infected by the month of July, with 1.8% of them testing initially positive in the previous week of surveillance, in accordance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By the month of mid-October, approximately 348,000 donations had been screened utilizing the test made by Hologic Inc. and Grifols. 14 were initially positive for the Zika virus.

It might be that not all of these samples are really contaminated. The technology is still in development, and the manufacturers are scrambling to confirm their results with further examinations of the donors.

Viral material traced after forty days is unlikely to be live virus, stated Dr. David O. Freedman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Florida is the mere state with documented regional transmission of the virus. In the month of July, the F.D.A. temporarily halted collection of blood donations in the Miami-Dade and Broward Counties until screening for the Zika infection could be put in place.

Blood banks had been inquiring donors about their travel history and that of their sexual partners, and then inquiring them to postpone donating for almost a month.

The Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New York, based in Erie, Pa., has been drawing additional tubes of blood from donors to fly overnight to a place of Houston laboratory for Zika infection screening at $6 to $10 a sample.

CMS Announces $66.1 million Funds for Zika prevention and treatment

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the day of Wednesday declared $66.1 million funds for Zika prevention and treatment to combat Zika virus.

Puerto Rico will get $60.6 million due to its high incidence of regional Zika cases, CMS stated.

Other regions that are eligible for the funds involve American Samoa, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are eligible because they have active or regional Zika virus transmissions that have been assured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health departments eligible to apply for funding involve territories, states, tribes or tribal agencies.

Applicants must indicate that their capability to rapidly and efficiently expand existing Zika response attempts and further determine the most effective use and dissemination of funds in their respective jurisdictions.

The money is to support Zika prevention and treatment services for health conditions regarded to the Zika virus, CMS claimed.

Funds will be available for healthcare services regarded to the family planning, screening, diagnostic testing, and counseling, medical care, case management and treatment, and making better provider capacity and capability.

Funds to Puerto Rico will go to resources to assist stop transmission of the virus and to give diagnostic, screening and treatment for pregnant ladies, newborns and others, CMS stated.

Congress approved the funds in the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and the Zika Response and Preparedness Act.

Zika virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. The virus can be passed from a pregnant lady to her fetus, causing extreme birth defects.

"This proposed funding will increase attempts to give access to important healthcare services for people, in specific pregnant women and kids, living in areas with local active Zika transmission," stated Vikki Wachino, deputy administrator, CMS.  "Giving instant help to regions impacted by Zika is critical.  Powerful coordination by health departments is important to deal the Zika prevention and treatment needs of people at threat from Zika."

CDC track pregnant ladies by Registries infected with Zika virus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working hard with local, state and territorial public health departments on surveillance of pregnant ladies that have laboratory proof of potential Zika virus infection. The CDC has established the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry and the Zika Active Pregnancy Surveillance System in Puerto Rico to give detailed monitoring of pregnant ladies and infant outcomes. These registries will help CDC track pregnant ladies infected with Zika virus.

The registries are assisting the CDC track pregnant ladies infected with Zika Virus and to better understand the range of adverse results that appear in infants and when in pregnancy those dangers are highest for microcephaly and other extreme birth defects caused by the Zika virus.

In accordance to Margaret Honein, chief of the CDC’s Birth Defects Branch and co-lead of its Pregnancy and Birth Defects Task Force, the information collected through the registries will be utilized to update suggestions for clinical care, plan for services and support for pregnant ladies and families infected by Zika, as well as make better prevention of infection during the time of pregnancy.

Honein, an epidemiologist, notices that the Zika virus can be passed from a pregnant lady to her fetus, which can cause destructive birth defects.

As of the day October 13, Honein claims that there are 899 pregnant ladies with laboratory proof of possible Zika virus infection in the USA and District of Columbia, and 1,927 in the U.S. territories. In the U.S. and D.C., 23 live-born infants with birth defects and 5 pregnancy losses with birth defects have been reported—the figures are based on data provided to the pregnancy surveillance systems.

“How this is handled at the state and regional level varies a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but electronic health records EHRs) are being used at many sites,” in accordance to Honein.

When it comes to detecting pregnant ladies infected by Zika, the CDC in the months of August and September made awards to state, regional and territorial health departments for what Honein calls “rapid birth defects surveillance” as well as to “work on the pregnancy registries.”

Previously this month, Congress assigned $1.1 billion in supplemental funding to battle against Zika. Of that, $394 million will go to the CDC.

Zika is significantly spread by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. Although, the Zika virus also can be transmitted through sex.

“It is significant to follow CDC instruction and screen all pregnant ladies for possible Zika virus exposure,” Honein summarizes. “At every prenatal visit, healthcare providers should be inquiring pregnant ladies about travel to places with active Zika virus infection or any sexual partners who might have travelled to a region with active Zika virus transmission—and then for those who’ve exposure, testing.” So, these registries will help CDC track pregnant ladies infected with Zika virus.

 

HHS grants $87 Million to stimulate IT adoption in health centers

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the day of Thursday declared $87 million in awards for 1,310 health centers to stimulate IT adoption in entire fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

In accordance to HHS, health IT is a proposed part of the Obama administration’s attempts to make a healthcare system that delivers better care, smarter spending and healthier individuals. The center added that this is the 1^st important investment to stimulate IT adoption since the year of 2009 directly granted to health centers to reinforce the purchase of health IT. HHS asserted that entire purchases or upgrades of electronic health record systems (EHRs) made with the funding must utilize technology notified by the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT.

“Health centers across the state are instrumental in offering high-quality, detailed primary healthcare to millions of persons,” stated HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “This contribution will assist to unlock healthcare data and put it to work, making better the health results and building a better healthcare system for the American persons.”

Among other objectives, the agency claimed the funding will be utilized to stimulate IT adoption and health information technology enhancements to accelerate health centers’ transition to value-based models of care; make better the efforts to share and use data to support better decisions; and increase engagement in delivery network transformation.

Presently, the Health Center Program funded by Health Resources and Services Administration supports almost 1,400 health centers that operate over 9,800 service delivery sites. The health centers hire more than 190,000 staff members who offer care for almost 24 million sufferers.

“These awards will permit health centers to deliver higher quality of care to sufferers and spend health care dollars in a smarter way,” stated HRSA Acting Administrator Jim Macrae

The investment comes from the Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center Fund, which was expanded with bipartisan support in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of the 2015 year.

 

HHS grants $36 Million To Support Health Center Controlled Networks For HIT Adoption

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is determined to empower healthcare information technology (HIT) adoption and move towards its interoperability objectives. To that end, HHS has declared it is granting more than $36 million in funding to 50 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) situated in forty-one states and Puerto Rico for health information technology (HIT) adoption.

As Health IT results reported, acquiring the target of interoperability by 2024 rests on the flow of data. This offer is made to assist those health centers that confront key obstacles to improving interoperability.

The final objective in helping Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) is to make better care access, quality, and price efficiency, prominently in medically underserved communities HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell stated. More than 1,020 engaging healthcare centers across the fifty states and Puerto Rico are hoped to take benefit from the funding, which funds the Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan.

“Health Center Controlled Networks are a primary tool in offering quality primary care to medically underserved communities,” claimed Burwell. “By utilizing these networks, individual health centers can work together to share resources, leverage purchasing power, and make better access to HIT (health information technology), leading to improved care experience for susceptible populations.”

The Health Center Controlled Networks support health centers to embrace and execute certified EHR technology; modify comprehensive, integrated information collection, analysis, and reporting; meet the needs of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program; and make better clinical and operational quality, decrease health disparities, and make better the population health through health information technology, specifically in underserved regions.

“These awards indicate our continued concentration on advancing health center quality and accountability across entire health centers by motivating the adoption of HIT,” claimed Health Jim Macrae, the Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Acting Administrator.

Almost 1,400 health centers operate over 9,800 service delivery locations in every USA state, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Pacific Basin. These health centers hire more than 170,000 staff that provides care for approximately 23 million sufferers.

 

HHS Invests in Facility Expansion to Empower Patient Access to Care

The Department of Health and Human Services will give $260 in funding toward primary care facility improvements, finally empowering patient access to care.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared a total of $260 million worth of funding toward the renovation of several primary care facilities, helping to make better the care quality and patient access to care, in accordance to a press release.

These funds will benefit primary care facilities in forty-five states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. By renovating these spaces, HHS hopes to modernize the care that is given and boost patient access to quality healthcare. The agency also expects these improvements will help boost the number of patients served.

 “Health centers are cornerstones of the communities they serve,” stated HHS’s Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.  “Today’s awards will empower health centers to build more capacity and provide needed health care to hundreds of thousands of additional individuals and their families.”

This funding comes following a similar announcement in the month of September of last year, during which HHS declared over $500 million toward boosting patient access to care through the construction of new care sites and facility improvements.

HHS Invests in Facility Expansion to Empower Patient Access to Care

The Department of Health and Human Services will give $260 in funding toward primary care facility improvements, finally empowering patient access to care.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared a total of $260 million worth of funding toward the reconstruction of several primary care services, assisting to make better the care quality and patient access to care, in accordance to a press release.

These funds will give benefit to primary care facilities in forty-five states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. By reconstructing these spaces, HHS expects to modernize the care that is given and encourage patient access to quality healthcare. The agency also expects these improvements will assist to empower the various patients served.

 “Health centers are cornerstones of the communities they facilitate,” stated HHS’s Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.  “Today’s awards will boost health centers to make more capacity and offer required health care to hundreds of thousands of extra people and their families.”

This funding comes following a same declaration in the month of September of previous year, during which HHS declared over $500 million toward empowering patient access to care through the construction of new care locations and facility improvements.

A totality of $350 million was funneled toward assisting more care service extend their significance of primary care to involve medical, oral, behavioral, pharmacy, and vision care. The left over $150 million went toward assisting several facilities to reconstruct their spaces to give better, more advanced care to their sufferers.

Entire funds come from the Affordable Care Act, and were a part of a greater mission to assist in expanding patient access to care. In accordance to a public statement, the ACA has assisted approximately 12 million people get primary care, and through these improvements, HHS leaders expect that number increases.

“These awards will offer 1.4 million more Americans across every state approach to comprehensive, quality health care,” stated Secretary Burwell. “ With these proposed awards, health centers will be capable to do things such as increase their hours of operation, employ more behavioral health contributors, add dental services,  better treat sufferers with opioid use disorders, and assist persons to get coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace and make the tour from coverage to primary care.”

Patient access to care has been a prominent topic across government health networks as of late. Just previous week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued reports on inadequacies at the Indian Health System and Department of Defense. Between longer wait period and deficiency of caregivers, both organizations have reportedly been falling short in giving proper care to their respective populace.