PHI and PII Identification Cyber Risk

This information may be available to our social media page administrators in whole or part, based on a user’s privacy settings on the social media website. However, we won’t use PII, if provided by you to a social media website or other website that requires registration, for targeted advertising or retargeting. Although you may voluntarily contribute to a social media website with the intent to share the information with others on a CMS social media page, to protect your privacy, don’t disclose PII about yourself or others. Although PHI requirements are strict, a HIPAA compliance checklist won’t necessarily address PCI, EU data protection laws and other regulations. Rather than developing individual programs for each regime, organizations should implement PII security best practices across the board, then iterate to meet remaining, regime-specific rules. Medicare Fee-for-Service eligibility and enrollment information and claims data are considered protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations.

Following PII security best practices helps organizations err on the side of caution. HIPAA isn’t a set of arcane and arbitrary rules to make your life difficult — it’s a useful framework to ensure a high standard of care and confidentiality for your patients. A PII best practices approach simplifies compliance by turning it into a single set of rules that can be used across your organization. That makes it easier to keep patients safe, and ensure sensitive information doesn’t fall through the cracks. CMS.gov uses a variety of technologies and social media services to communicate and interact with the public. These third-party websites and applications include popular social networking and media websites, open source software communities, and more.

Data containing PII and PHI can be difficult to manage due to its sheer volume and complexity, but its vulnerability to breaches is even more concerning. A study by the Ponemon Institute found that 89% of the 641 healthcare information technology and security entities it surveyed experienced at least one cyberattack in the past year, with an average of 43 attacks. The study also found that more than 20% of those organizations saw increased patient mortality rates as a result of cyberattacks, mostly due to procedure and test delays. PHI, or protected health information, is any type of health information, like physical or electronic health records, medical bills, and lab test results, that has individual identifiers .

Access to sensitive PHI should only be granted to employees who “need to know” to perform their jobs effectively. Log management systems should be enabled to monitor the use and access to said data. To apply for both the waiver of consent and waiver of authorization, the PI must demonstrate how the study meets all of the required waiver/alteration criteria, and include the justification within the protocol.

So how do we secure this PII and PHI knowing that a data breach can affect lives and even bring legal repercussions? First, our level of security must match the level of data sensitivity. In the case of PII, it depends on the business contract under which we are handling the PII and any applicable state laws.

Healthcare organizations handle data that contains sensitive information every single day. Much of this data includes personally identifiable information and qualifies as protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act . HIPAA Journal provides the most comprehensive coverage of HIPAA news anywhere online, in addition to independent advice about HIPAA compliance and the best practices to adopt to avoid data breaches, HIPAA violations and regulatory fines.

See the below sections on Waiver or Alteration of HIPAA Authorization for details on the process to apply for a HIPAA waiver. ThePrivacy Ruleestablishes a category of health information, defined as protected health information , which a covered entity may only use or disclose to others in certain circumstances and under certain conditions. Another method is to use multi-factor authentication , which requires users to provide two or more methods to verify their identity before they can gain access to sensitive information. Because MFA is more secure than traditional authentication methods, it can prevent unauthorized access to your organization’s PII and PHI by unauthorized individuals within and outside your organization. How can your healthcare organization protect its PII and PHI from inadvertent disclosure? The Federal government requires organizations to identify PII and PHI and handle them securely.

Approximate geographic location based on the IP address of the user’s local system. For information on how we share information, seeHow CMS uses information collected on CMS.gov. We’ll work with you to extract relevant PHI and PII and give you and your legal counsel the best possible guidance around regulation and breach notification. Corporate Finance and Restructuring Comprehensive investment banking, corporate finance, restructuring and insolvency services to investors, asset managers, companies and lenders.