Contact Us
Categories
- Workplace Violence
- Assisted Living Facilities
- Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights
- Medical Residents
- EMTALA
- FDA
- Reproductive Rights
- Roe v. Wade
- SCOTUS
- Medical Spas
- medical billing
- No Surprises Act
- Mandatory vaccination policies
- Workplace health
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
- Code Enforcement
- Department of Labor ("DOL")
- Employment Law
- FFCRA
- CARES Act
- Nursing Home Reform Act
- Acute Care Beds
- Clinical Support
- Coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Emergency Medical Services
- Emergency Preparedness
- Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”)
- KBML
- medication assisted therapy
- SB 150
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Legislative Developments
- Corporate
- United States Department of Justice ("DOJ")
- Employee Contracts
- Non-Compete Agreement
- Opioid Epidemic
- Sexual Harassment
- Health Resource and Services Administration
- House Bill 333
- Litigation
- Medical Malpractice
- Senate Bill 79
- Locum Tenens
- Senate Bill 4
- Physician Prescribing Authority
- Chronic Pain Management
- HIPAA
- Prescription Drugs
- "Two Midnights Rule"
- 340B Program
- EHR Systems
- Hospice
- ICD-10
- Kentucky minimum wage
- Minimum wage
- Primary Care Physicians ("PCPs")
- Skilled Nursing Facilities (“SNFs”)
- Uncategorized
- Affordable Insurance Exchanges
- Drug Screening
- Electronic Health Records (“EHR")
- Fraud
- Health Care Fraud
- HIPAA Risk Assessment
- KASPER
- Mental Health Care
- Office for Civil Rights ("OCR")
- Qui Tam
- Stark Laws
- Urinalysis
- Accountable Care Organizations (“ACO”)
- Affordable Care Act
- Alternative Payment Models
- Anti-Kickback Statute
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”)
- Certificate of Need ("CON")
- Charitable Hospitals
- Compliance
- Data Breach
- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI)
- False Claims Act
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (“FQHCs”)
- Fee for Service
- Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
- Health Professional Shortage Area ("HPSA")
- Hospitals
- HPSA
- Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure
- Kentucky’s Department for Medicaid Services
- Medicaid
- Medical Staff By-Laws
- Medically Underserved Area ("MUA")
- Medicare
- Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (OIG)
- Part D
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”)
- Pharmacists
- Physician Assistants
- Rural Health Centers (“RHCs”)
- Rural Health Clinic
- Telehealth
- American Telemedicine Association (“ATA”)
- Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”)
- Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”)
- HRSA
- Hydrocodone
- Kentucky Board of Nursing
- Kentucky Pharmacists Association
- Limited Services Clinics
- Mid-Level Practitioners
- Qualified Health Care Centers (“FQHC”)
- Telemedicine
- Agreed Order
- APRNs
- Chain and Organization System (“PECOS”)
- Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA")
- Hinchy v. Walgreen Co.
- Jimmo v. Sebelius
- Maintenance Standard
- Overpayments
- United States ex. Rel. Kane v. Continuum Health Partners
- Vitas Innovative Hospice Care
- Webinar
- 2014 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (“PFS”)
- 501(c)(3)
- All-Payer Claims Database ("APCD")
- Appeal
- Chiropractic services
- Chronic Care Management
- Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”)
- Compliance Officer
- Compounding
- CPR
- Dispenser
- Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California
- Drug Quality and Security Act (“DQSA”)
- Emergency Rooms
- Enrollment
- Essential Health Benefits
- House Bill 3204
- ICD-9
- Kentucky Senate Bill 7
- Kindred v. Cherolis
- Long-term care communities
- Medicare Part D
- Minors
- National Drug Code ("NDC")
- New England Compounding Center ("NECC")
- Ophthalmological services
- Outsourcing facility
- Physician Compare website
- Ping v. Beverly Enterprises
- Power of Attorney ("POA")
- Prescriber
- Re-validation
- Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”)
- Texting
- "Plan of Correction"
- Affinity Health Plan
- Arbitration
- Audit
- Cadillac tax
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Community health needs assessment (“CHNA”)
- Condition of Participation ("CoP")
- Daycare centers
- Decertification
- Denied Claims
- Department of Medicaid Services’ (“DMS”)
- Division of Regulated Child Care
- EHR vendor
- Employer Mandate
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- False Billings
- Federation of State Medical Boards (“FSMB”)
- Food and Drug Administratio
- Form 4720
- Grace Period
- Health Professional Shortage Areas (“HPSA”)
- HealthCare.gov
- Home Health Prospective Payment System
- Home Medical Equipment Providers
- Hospitalists
- Individual mandate
- Inpatient Care
- Intermediate Sanctions Agreement
- Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange
- Kentucky Medical Practice Act
- Kynect
- Licensed practical nurses (LPN)
- Licensure Requirements
- List of Excluded Individuals and Entities
- LLC v. Sutter
- Long-Term Care Providers ("LTC")
- Low-utilization payment adjustment ("LUPA")
- Meaningful use incentives
- Medicare Administrative Coordinators
- Medicare Benefit Policy Manual
- Medicare Shared Saving Program (MSSP)
- Mobile medical applications ("apps")
- Model Policy for the Appropriate Use of Social Media and Social Networking in Medical Practice (“Model Policy”)
- National Institutes of Health
- Network provider agreement
- Nonprofit hospitals
- Nonroutine medical supplies conversion factor (“NRS”)
- Nurse practitioners (NP)
- Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”)
- Part A
- Part B
- Payors
- Personal Service Entities
- Physician Payments
- Physician Recruitment
- Physician shortages
- Provider Self Disclosure Protocol
- Qualified Health Plan ("QHP")
- Quality reporting
- Registered nurses (RN)
- Residency Programs
- Self-Disclosure Protocol
- Social Media
- Spousal coverage
- State Health Plan
- Statement of Deficiency ("SOD")
- Upcoding
- UPS
- “Superuser”
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
- Autism/ASD
- Business Associate Agreements
- Business Associates
- Call Coverage
- Compliance Programs
- Doe v. Guthrie Clinic
- Employer Group Health Plans
- ERISA
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act ("GINA")
- Group Purchasing Organizations ("GPO")
- Health Reform
- House Bill 104
- Kentucky House Bill 159
- Kentucky House Bill 217
- Kentucky Primary Care Centers (“PCCs”)
- Managed Care Organizations (“MCOs”)
- Patient Autonomy
- Patient Privacy
- Personal Health Information
- Senate Bill 39
- Senate Finance Committee Report
- State Medicaid Expansion
- Trade Association Group Coverage
- Abuse and Waste
- Center for Disease Control
- Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan programs (“CO-OPS”)
- Critical Access Hospitals (“CAHs”)
- Essential Health Benefits (“EHBs”)
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
- House Bill 1
- Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
- Kentucky Health Care Co-Op
- Kentucky Health Cooperative (“KYHC”)
- Kentucky “Pill Mill Bill”
- Medicare Audit Improvement Act of 2012
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”)
- Recovery Audit Contractors (“RAC”)
- Small Business Health Options Program (“SHOP”)
- Sunshine Act
- Employee Agreement
- Free Conference Committee Report
- Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program
- Health Insurance
- Healthcare Regulation
- House Bill 4
- Pain Management Facilities
- Health Care Law
McBrayer Blogs
NIST standards provides an oasis of mobile device security in the EHR desert
The healthcare industry has long awaited some certainty in the arena of mobile devices in light of the continued push for electronic health records (“EHR”) and coordinated care. The prevalence, convenience, and speed of such devices is beyond discussion. According to the 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, found that 90% of healthcare providers use them in their organizations. Mobile devices provide clinicians with quick access to information at the point of care. However, the use of mobile devices brings a mountain of security risks for covered entities, including the loss or theft of the mobile device and unsecure exchange of health information. When every individual entering a facility has a mobile device, the large number of mobile devices using a facility’s network can overload the system.
Until now, however, healthcare entities have largely been left to craft their own policies and processes for securing employees and medical personnel’s personal mobile devices and platforms. Failure to adequately address security concerns with mobile devices is an enormous risk area for covered entities. For example, an employee that opens a secure email with PHI on his/her Iphone inadvertently removes the encryption and makes the email unsecure, which means any further communication of that email would constitute a breach of unsecured PHI.
The consequences for failure to secure these mobile devices can be steep, including expensive security breaches and liability for both Covered Entities and Business Associates under HIPAA/HITECH. As these entities try to address security concerns by adopting bring-your-own-device (“BYOD”) policies, the HIPAA/HITECH compliance challenges multiply exponentially.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) develops electronic security and encryption standards and their encryption standards are relied upon by regulators and Covered Entities. This federal agency has the duty of studying technological issues and then developing technology standards, frameworks, guidelines and best practices, including defining what level of encryption is tough enough to secure the data. As a result of the high costs of data breaches and security risks from mobile devices, NIST has recently developed a series of standards and guidance for securing EHR on mobile devices, appropriately entitled, “Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices.”[1]
NIST’s five-volume guide breaks mobile device security considerations into four topics or sections, including (1) Executive Summary; (2) Approach, Architecture, and Security Characteristics; (3) How-to Guide; (4) Set of Standards and Controls Mapping; and (5) Risk Assessment and Outcomes.[2]
The detailed 82-page set of “how-to guides” for security engineers[3] is particularly valuable for healthcare entities. This section of the NIST guidance provides practical tips and step-by-step processes for security engineers to strengthen mobile device security. This guide has a full section devoted to Governance, Risk, and Compliance which “allows an organization to link strategy and risk, adjusting strategy when risk changes, while remaining in compliance with laws and regulations.”[4]
These standards and guides constitute NIST’s first attempt at providing standards for safeguarding medical data on mobile devices. NIST is accepting public comments until September 25, 2015. While this guidance is not yet final, it is replete with highly valuable information for healthcare entities seeking to take advantage of mobile devices to assist in patient care while simultaneously protecting the security of the data on the mobile device and prevent liability for breaches of ePHI. The attorneys at McBrayer can help healthcare entities make sense of how the new NIST standards promote compliance with HIPAA’s Security Rule. Contact us for more information on how this new guidance can promote security across an organization, while integrating new technology for the benefit of coordinated patient care.
Services may be performed by others.
This article does not constitute legal advice.
[1] NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, Special Publication 1800-1: “Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices”, https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/health_it/ehr_on_mobile_devices
[2] NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, Special Publication 1800-1: “Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices”, SP 1800-1a; SP 1800-1b; SP 1800-1c; SP 1800-1d; SP 1800-1e, https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/health_it/ehr_on_mobile_devices
[3] NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, Health IT, “Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices: How-to Guides for Security Engineers,” SP 1800-1c, https://nccoe.nist.gov/sites/default/files/nccoe/NIST_SP1800-1c_Draft_HIT_Mobile-HowTo_0.pdf
[4] Kauffman, et al. “Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices,” NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide SP 1800-1c at 57 (2015)