Well, time has run out. Here comes the HIPAA audit train. Getting on or getting run over? RSnake has a piece over on Dark Reading about the upcoming audits that are to be conducted by PwC.
From Dark Reading:
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has begun spending millions of dollars in a year-long contract to have PricewaterhouseCoopers International perform a series of HIPAA compliance reviews against hospitals that have had privacy complaints filed against them over the last several years. The HIPAA compliance deadline for most hospitals was the middle of 2005, giving hospitals plenty of time to get their act in order.
But PwC won’t be auditing all of the entities against whom complaints have been filed — in fact, only 10 or 20 out of about 200 will get the compliance audit. As a person who visits the doctor precisely once every 15 years, I’m not particularly worried about myself. But it’s easy to see why someone who visits hospitals regularly would want a better assurance of privacy.
It’s unclear what the penalties will be for hospitals that fail the audit, but portions of HIPAA do include potential jail time for failure to comply.
[tags]HIPAA, HIPAA Audits, HIPAA Compliance[/tags]
