Over the past year, investigations into secure email hacking in Michigan have doubled. If practices are found to be in violation, fines can cost up to $50,000 per piece of  jeopardized electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI). Even more devastating: There is little leniency for practices that think they are complying with the law but really aren’t.
Around the country, hacking investigations continue to reveal startling breaches. In December 2018, the email account of just one employee at Ohio-based Superior Dental Care (SDC) was hacked by a cybercriminal.  However, the attack itself wasn’t detected by SDC for a full month.  That one breach affected 38,260 patients.  The emails contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and medical and payment information. SDC may not have knowingly violated HIPAA regulations.  There are six parts of HIPAA email law that must all be met in order to achieve full HIPAA compliance. If even one part of the HIPAA law for email isn’t met, that’s a violation.  SDC has taken corrective actions to come into full compliance for secure email and to notify the nearly 40,000 patients affected.   
Your key takeaway: If you don’t know if your secure email fulfills all the rules of the federal government’s HIPAA law, you’re putting your practice, and patients’ sensitive information, at risk. Don’t join Superior Dental Care and so many others on the government’s “Breach Portal” found online at ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf.
Understanding and fulfilling HIPAA email requirements is a huge challenge. Let the MDA-endorsed iCoreExchange product do the work for you so you can focus on providing the best care for your patients.
MDA members receive special discount pricing on iCoreExchange.
Call 888-810-7706 to book a live demo or visit iCoreConnect.com/MDA.