Supervisors narrowly approve HIPAA compliance plan

The Grundy County Board of Supervisors narrowly passed a motion that will implement a comprehensive Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance plan for the county during its regular meeting on Monday morning.
           
Assistant County Attorney Emily Staudacher, County Attorney Erika Allen, County IT/GIS Director Don Kampman and assistant director Jesse Huisman all attended the meeting to discuss the matter, and Staudacher recommended that the county hire a third party to implement trainings for employees and essentially serve as an insurance policy for the county in the event of a data breach. The Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) also has a policy, but it is not as comprehensive as the one offered through Carosh, a private company, at a cost of $12,750 for the first year.
           
Staudacher relayed instances of public institutions being hit with massive fines—the University of Massachusetts-Amherst was recently forced to pay $650,000 after a breach—noting that the county’s insurance does not cover such fines because they are meant to be punitive. Kampman added that while there is no way to definitively prevent a breach, having a strong compliance policy in place would be beneficial in mitigating the risk and lessening the potential penalties that come with a HIPAA violation. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.