HIPAA Regulations & Business Associate Agreements In The Age Of Digital Collaboration

The healthcare industry has come up against unprecedented pressure in recent years. Digital transformation has had a significant role to play when it comes to creating the efficiency needed to deal with the challenges of a global pandemic, in addition to the other mounting challenges of aging populations, staffing shortages, rising costs, and regulatory changes.

Some of the most fundamental qualities of effective government are transparency and trust. You’ve undoubtedly worked hard to create engaging comms and programs to serve the public and engage them in dialogue, all with the goal of building trust. 

At the end of 2021, J.P. Morgan Securities (JPMS) agreed to pay $200 million to resolve charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It would pay the SEC $125 million and the CFTC $75 million. 

In the 1960s, marketing looked very different from what it is today. Billboards and magazine advertisements have been replaced by social media posts, emails, influencer marketing, and endorsements. Even hashtags and comments on social media posts can be used for marketing purposes. 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is not afraid of issuing steep fines when it comes to non-compliance of SEA Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4 of Section 17(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (‘’Exchange Act’’ or ‘’SEA’’). We previously mentioned how FINRA fined 12 firms a total of $14.4 million for what it called “failing to protect records from alteration.” And while the technology exists to support brokerage firms in the securities industry (and one would expect non-compliance to slowly decrease), fines continue to be issued.

Investment firms and other financial institutions are subject to the strict recordkeeping and communication regulations laid out by both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The goal of these regulations is to protect the industry and its customers—and both bodies are willing to impose hefty fines if they believe a firm has stepped out of line.

It’s crucial that financial services organizations adhere to official communications and recordkeeping rules. More than ever, the SEC (and other regulators) are scrutinizing how firms communicate with external stakeholders—and how they keep records of these communications. 

When it comes to compliance, those working within heavily regulated industries are well accustomed to the constant introduction and updating of new legal rulings. Thankfully, technology keeps evolving in support of businesses to help make meeting these requirements an achievable and even streamlined process.

Modern enterprise necessitates the control of huge amounts of data. From creation through to storage and finally, safe disposal, information governance is the process of applying set rules and procedures to ensure the responsible management of this data.

Traditional discovery is the initial phase of litigation when all parties are required to provide records and evidence relevant to a specific case. However, thanks to the explosion of electronically stored information (ESI), discovery must now work alongside eDiscovery—a process that involves the identification, preservation, collection, retention, and review of data in an electronic format. This makes the discovery exponentially larger and more complex.