OCR Warns Suppliers About Affected person Information Trackers

Earlier this week, our Fox companion Odia Kagan spoke on HIMSS TV in regards to the dangers related to what could also be a “blind spot” in your information privateness compliance efforts: the usage of information trackers (akin to cookies, monitoring pixels, session replay scripts) on firm web sites or apps. This blind spot is especially perilous when the information being tracked is affected person medical info or different private information topic to information privateness legal guidelines. Maybe the HIPAA regulators have been listening.

Yesterday, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) Workplace for Civil Rights (OCR) revealed a Bulletin warning HIPAA coated entities and enterprise associates about the usage of monitoring applied sciences which will accumulate protected well being info (PHI) in violation of HIPAA. The Bulletin is a complete description of how and when affected person information trackers current HIPAA compliance hurdles. Just a few good take-aways::

1. Be sure to have a enterprise affiliate settlement (BAA) in place with any firm (together with an information monitoring firm) that may entry and use protected well being info
2. Even trackers on unauthenticated webpages (these not requiring consumer log-in) could accumulate PHI. As per OCR: “Monitoring applied sciences on a regulated entity’s unauthenticated webpage that addresses particular signs or well being situations, akin to being pregnant or miscarriage, or that allows people to seek for docs or schedule appointments with out getting into credentials could have entry to PHI in sure circumstances. For instance, monitoring applied sciences may accumulate a person’s e mail deal with and/or IP deal with when the person visits a regulated entity’s webpage to seek for out there appointments with a well being care supplier. On this instance, the regulated entity is disclosing PHI to the monitoring know-how vendor, and thus the HIPAA Guidelines apply.”
3. It’s not adequate to have the monitoring know-how take away or de-identify the PHI it collects: “[i]t is inadequate for a monitoring know-how vendor to conform to take away PHI from the knowledge it receives or de-identify the PHI earlier than the seller saves the knowledge. Any disclosure of PHI to the seller with out people’ authorizations requires the seller to have a signed BAA in place and requires that there’s an relevant Privateness Rule permission for disclosure.”
4. Keep in mind that even an IP deal with alone could be PHI when collected on a coated entity or enterprise web site or app: “Regulated entities disclose a wide range of info to monitoring know-how distributors via monitoring applied sciences positioned on a regulated entity’s web site or cellular app, together with individually identifiable well being info (IIHI) that the person gives once they use regulated entities’ web sites or cellular apps. This info would possibly embrace a person’s medical file quantity, house or e mail deal with, or dates of appointments, in addition to a person’s IP deal with or geographic location, medical machine IDs, or any distinctive figuring out code. All such IIHI collected on a regulated entity’s web site or cellular app typically is PHI, even when the person doesn’t have an current relationship with the regulated entity and even when the IIHI, akin to IP deal with or geographic location, doesn’t embrace particular remedy or billing info like dates and sorts of well being care companies.”