Perspectives on Healthcare IT, clinical informatics, emerging technology, and life at the intersection of nursing and enterprise systems.
Ransomware locks the systems hospitals depend on and holds them hostage. This post explains how attacks unfold, why HHS presumes a HIPAA breach when ransomware encrypts ePHI, what the Change Healthcare attack revealed, and how nurses keep care safe when the EHR goes dark.
HIPAA began as a 1996 law about keeping health insurance when changing jobs. Its administrative simplification title became the foundation of healthcare privacy, security, and electronic transactions. This post explains the structure of HIPAA, its major rules, how it is enforced, and what it means at the bedside.
Protected Health Information is the operational unit of HIPAA — the specific category of data every rule, safeguard, and breach notification exists to protect. This post breaks down what PHI is, the 18 identifier categories, how PHI differs from ePHI and IIHI, and how it shows up at the bedside and on the CAHIMS exam.