HIPAA, CIA, and Safeguards Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HIPAA, CIA, and Safeguards - Case Study Example It never took enough precautionary measures to ensure the privacy of information. Investigations also revealed that the organization never implemented enough physical safeguards. This is due to the fact that it never had proper facility access controls. In fact, the requirements are as per HIPAA security rules. It has been noticed that health plans as well as health care providers do not comply with the requirements of HIPAA as far as information security is concerned. HITECH Breach notification rule is assertive in ensuring that rights of patients are protected. The rights ensure that information about the patient is given protection to enable privacy of the service (HHS, 2012). Apart from paying $1.5 million, BCBST had to promise to review and revise its policies concerning security and privacy. The health providers and health plans do not provide robust and regular training for employees as required by HIPAA rules. It is required that confidentiality of information is maintained such that the information is not disclosed to unauthorized people. OCR has investigated issues on lack of compliance. It investigated several institutions including hospital chains, small provider offices, major medical centers, national pharmacy chains, health insurance issuers, and group health plans among others. OCR has been specific in its investigations (Gibson, 2013). Among the issues include patients lacking access to protected health information, PHI. It was found that there are no proper safeguards to PHI. The health institutions do not put implement proper administrative safeguards that are used to protect electronic the protected health information. Another issue was unauthorized disclosure or use of more than the minimum necessary protected health information. Another case happened to Hospice of North Idaho when it violated HIPAA security rule. It agreed to pay the government $50000. According to the investigations of OCR, it was found that an unencrypted

European Law - law essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

European Law - law - Essay Example This exemption is also available to agreements, which engender technical or economic progress that proves beneficial to consumers. However, these agreements should not destroy the competitive market for similar products1. The Commission had published the Guidelines with regard to the applicability of Article 81 EC to horizontal cooperation agreements. By virtue of these Guidelines, the Commission has expanded its erstwhile perspective and relies on the market power of companies as the most suitable test in this context. In this manner, the Commission is aiming to render the prerequisites for applying Article 81(1) EC, proximate to the merger control norms. This approach seems to be unjustified from the perspective of policy decision, because it relaxes the standards set out for the relevant markets. In addition, it is also inadequate from a legal point of view, for the implementation of the provisions of Article 81(1) EC; because, the market power of companies constitutes an inappropriate test in this regard2. In order to adopt an economics – based application of Article 81(1) EC, the Commission would be hard placed to acquire the necessary human resources, which could prove to be quite burdensome. Furthermore, Article 81 EC does not cover all agreements. It only covers agreements that restrict competition. The Commission had extended its application purview to new thresholds such as free market shares through the Notice on agreements of minor importance of 2001. This Notice deals with agreements that impose non – appreciable horizontal and vertical restrictions on competition. However, it excludes hard core restrictions. The new parameters could possibly exclude agreements between small and medium sized companies3. Agreements, that attempt to prevent, distort or restrict competition in the common market, are in violation of Article 81(1) EC. If an agreement violates Article 81(1) EC, then it is not necessary to