{"id":277,"date":"2017-05-24T07:49:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T11:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/?p=277"},"modified":"2017-05-25T03:13:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T07:13:37","slug":"failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has taken a recent enforcement action concerning the failure to establish business associate agreements in a timely manner. The following information overviews OCR actions with a practice that failed to establish a <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Business Associate Agreement<\/em><\/span> (<span style=\"color: #000000;\">BAA<\/span>) with one of its vendors for several years.<\/p>\n<h2>What Happened\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>In August 2015, OCR initiated a compliance review of the practice following an investigation of a <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Business Associate<\/em><\/span> (<span style=\"color: #000000;\">BA<\/span>) that stored records containing <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>protected health information<\/em><\/span> (<span style=\"color: #000000;\">PHI<\/span>) for the practice. While the practice began disclosing PHI to the BA in 2003, neither party could produce a BAA signed prior to October 2015.\u00a0 So, while the practice had a current BAA (since 2015) it was discovered that they began using the vendor\u2019s services in 2003 without a BAA.<\/p>\n<h3><em>Citations\u2026<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>The citation from the failure included:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Practice failed to obtain satisfactory assurance (in the form of a BAA) that vendor would appropriately safeguard patient information (PHI) of the practice.<\/li>\n<li>Practice impermissibly disclosed PHI to vendor without satisfactory assurances (in the form of a BAA) that the vendor would appropriately safeguard PHI.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><em>Results\u2026<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>As a result of the citations, the practice had to agree to pay a Resolution Amount (i.e., fine or penalty) of $31,000 for failing to have a BAA with the vendor, in addition to complying with a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) that OCR imposed.<\/p>\n<h3><em>Lessons learned\u2026<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>It is important to ensure that a BAA is established with each new vendor that fits the definition of a business associate, as soon as service is initiated with the vendor.\u00a0 A practice may designate one person to fulfill this responsibility, or ensure that each workforce member who has the authority to engage the services of a business associate is trained to obtain a BAA.\u00a0 One person should be designated to periodically review records to ensure that required business associate agreements are in place (e.g., once per year).<\/p>\n<p>For more information about this enforcement action, please see the article titled\u00a0<em>Business Associate Agreement Enforcement<\/em>\u00a0in your\u00a0June copy of the\u00a0<i>Advisor\u00ae<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[46,23],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eagle-staff","tag-business-associate-agreements","tag-hipaa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eagle Associates News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eagle Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eagle Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eagle Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9\"},\"headline\":\"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/associate-agrmnts.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"business associate agreements\",\"hipaa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"eagle associates staff\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/\",\"name\":\"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/associate-agrmnts.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/associate-agrmnts.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/associate-agrmnts.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Eagle Associates News\",\"description\":\"News and More from Eagle Associates, Inc.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eagleassociates.net\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9\",\"name\":\"Eagle Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Eagle Staff\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.eagleassociates.net\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News","og_description":"\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/","og_site_name":"Eagle Associates News","article_published_time":"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Eagle Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eagle Staff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/"},"author":{"name":"Eagle Staff","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9"},"headline":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements","datePublished":"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/"},"wordCount":342,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg","keywords":["business associate agreements","hipaa"],"articleSection":["eagle associates staff"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/","url":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/","name":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements | Eagle Associates News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-24T11:49:18+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-25T07:13:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/associate-agrmnts.jpg","width":1000,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/2017\/05\/failure-to-establish-business-associate-agreements\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Failure to Establish Business Associate Agreements"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/","name":"Eagle Associates News","description":"News and More from Eagle Associates, Inc.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ed0338105c6f7bd7e7014934db2b97f9","name":"Eagle Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f46663bd04e8c76f12d55caa7ba167ba1e86492b7c8b4bb878cad266fde91a5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Eagle Staff"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.eagleassociates.net"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleassociates.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}