Many practices lack the means to plan and budget IT expenses and future equipment needs. The dental industry continues to face stagnant growth. The 2017 Dental Economics–Levin Group Annual Practice Survey cites reasons for this, including the expansion of DSOs, declining insurance provider reimbursements, and the increasing number of dentists coming out of dental schools―all [...]
Don’t ignore the risks of an outdated IT infrastructure. A State of Work Report by Samanage in 2016 found that businesses lose over $13,000 per year, per employee, on unproductive tasks, many, due to outdated technology. Inthis same study, 36.8% of working adults reported their company’s technology wasoutdated. It’s easy to understand why many medical, [...]
By Elizabeth O’Dowd Properly planning upgrades to legacy health IT infrastructure solutions prevents compatibility issues and assures the IT budget is being used effectively. A successful health IT infrastructure comprises many layers. From storage to wireless networks, these solutions need to work together to ensure electronic health data is secure and accessible. IT infrastructure is [...]
The Senate health-care bill: What’s at stake for dental practices and the dental industry? Jul 15, 2017 By Meg Booth and Kevin Thomas Industry | Opinion News stories about the health-care debate have shared dozens of numbers and statistics, leaving many Americans feeling numb, confused, or both. By now, you may know that Senate’s health-care [...]
The FBI in a private industry notification warned health care providers that cybercriminals are actively targeting File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers “operating in ‘anonymous’ mode and associated with medical and dental facilities to access protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) in order to intimidate, harass and blackmail business owners.” The notification, issued [...]
By Admin April 27, 2017 An Illinois pediatric health chain paid a $31,000 HIPAA breach penalty this month after the company it hired to store and manage old paper medical records instead dumped them into an unlocked trash bin at an office park. Center for Children’s Digestive Health (CCDH) – which operates seven clinics across [...]
By Admin April 27, 2017 The theft of a laptop computer containing information of nearly 1,400 patients was among two HIPAA breaches that led a Pennsylvania provider of remote heart monitoring to pay $2.5 million, federal authorities said this week. Malvern-based CardioNet, Inc., essentially had no process at all for securely managing electronic protected health [...]
There are many great reasons for dental offices to transition from paper charts to digital charts, though change in any capacity always takes work. Rest assured, this change will be well worth your efforts, and those of your staff. Your investment of time and money will not be wasted, and for years to come you’ll [...]
Monitoring endpoint security and having outside companies conduct risk assessments are key steps to prepare against healthcare cybersecurity threats. As more healthcare ransomware cases are reported, it becomes even more apparent that organizations of all sizes can no longer assume that they will never be a target of a healthcare cybersecurity attack. Covered entities must [...]
