Tammy Worth

Bias extends beyond skin color to the assumptions physicians might make about patients.

To accommodate patients remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, practices may have expanded personnel access to protected health information and relied on devices that might be vulnerable to cyber attacks.

NRC Health, a software and patient satisfaction survey provider holding data from more than 25 million patients, was locked out of its computer system in February because of a ransomware attack.

By connecting on a personal level, medical practices may have better results in getting patients to settle their accounts.

Regardless of the challenges a smaller group might have, a risk assessment is a baseline for any HIPAA program. The cost of this assessment is considerably less than a HIPAA fine.

Putting information in the cloud can be a good move for a physician’s practice — but only if done well.

Hackers have penetrated healthcare providers’ computer systems to encrypt information and demand money for its release.