Health Information Management

HIPAA Q&A: You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers!

HIM-HIPAA Insider, April 28, 2014

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Submit your HIPAA questions to Editor Jaclyn Fitzgerald at jfitzgerald@hcpro.com and we will work with our experts to provide you with the information you need.

 
Q: If a business associate (BA) commits a breach, should they notify OCR or should we?
 
A: Covered entities (CE) are responsible for reporting breaches to OCR. You can delegate the reporting, but it needs to be in writing. If your BA fails to report the breach, OCR will call you and not the BA because it's your regulatory responsibility.
 
Also, the Breach Notification Rule requires BAs to report all breaches of unsecure PHI to CEs. CEs are responsible for completing a four-factor risk assessment to determine what needs to be reported. That can be delegated, too, but it still remains CEs' regulatory obligation.
 
Editor’s note: Chris Apgar, CISSP, president of Apgar & Associates, LLC, in Portland, Ore., answered this question for HCPro’ s Briefings on HIPAA newsletter.



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