It’s been an expensive week for two companies alleged to have breached the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, according to Kimberly Gold at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. They entered into settlements of almost $2 million and it’s all because of the failure to encrypt laptops, which were subsequently stolen.
One of the companies, Concentra Health Services, had previously conducted risk analyses and reports revealing the lack of encryption on its devices was problematic, said Gold. “While Concentra had taken steps to begin encryption, [the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights found that it] had insufficient security management processes in place to safeguard patient information,” she said.
