Services
Services
SOC & Attestations
SOC & Attestations
Payment Card Assessments
Payment Card Assessments
ISO Certifications
ISO Certifications
Privacy Assessments
Privacy Assessments
Federal Assessments
Federal Assessments
Healthcare Assessments
Healthcare Assessments
Penetration Testing
Penetration Testing
Cybersecurity Assessments
Cybersecurity Assessments
Crypto and Digital Trust
Crypto and Digital Trust
Schellman Training
Schellman Training
Industry Solutions
Industry Solutions
Cloud Computing & Data Centers
Cloud Computing & Data Centers
Financial Services & Fintech
Financial Services & Fintech
Healthcare
Healthcare
Payment Card Processing
Payment Card Processing
US Government
US Government
Learning Center
Learning Center
Articles
Articles
Whitepapers
Whitepapers
Case Studies
Case Studies
Events & Live Webinars
Events & Live Webinars
On-Demand Webinars
On-Demand Webinars
About Us
About Us
Leadership Team
Leadership Team
Careers
Careers
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility

Blog

The Schellman Blog

Stay up to date with the latest compliance news from the Schellman blog.

DOUG KANNEY

Doug Kanney is a Principal at Schellman based in Columbus, Ohio. Doug leads the HITRUST and HIPAA service lines and assists with methodology and service delivery across the SOC, PCI-DSS, and ISO service lines. Doug has more than 17 years of combined audit experience in public accounting. Doug has provided professional services for multiple Global 1000, Fortune 500, and regional companies during the course of his career.

Blog Feature

HITRUST

By: DOUG KANNEY
March 17th, 2023

Have you ever picked out a hike in the mountains, but once you arrive at the base and look up, you think to yourself, “oh man, I have to climb that?” Your enthusiasm might bleed away a little bit.

Blog Feature

SOC 2 | HITRUST | SOC 2 + HITRUST

By: DOUG KANNEY
January 26th, 2023

Prolific and unique musician MF Doom once said, “I'm always trying to show versatility. I'm juggling, and I'm flipping fire, and I'm chewing gum and rhyming at the same time... on a unicycle, while playing the drums.”

Blog Feature

HIPAA | HIPAA Express

By: DOUG KANNEY
December 1st, 2022

If you’ve ever tried to learn another language, you know that it’s incredibly difficult to just jump in—self-instruction can be difficult, disorganized, and overwhelming. It’s helpful, when setting off on this ambitious endeavor, to engage with a helpful tool that features a more structured approach with instruction on specific concepts. Let’s face it—if there’s something out there that can simplify complex ideas, it just makes sense to take advantage of it.

Blog Feature

By: DOUG KANNEY
June 13th, 2019

On May 24th, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a fact sheet on direct liability of Business Associates under HIPAA. For reference, if an organization is unsure about if it is a Business Associate, a good resource can be found here.

Blog Feature

HIPAA | Healthcare

By: DOUG KANNEY
April 11th, 2019

“Do I really need to retain all my HIPAA audit logs for 6 years?”

Blog Feature

By: DOUG KANNEY
December 10th, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Anthem has settled a data breach case for $115 million. It is one of the largest settlements ever and holds lessons for healthcare risk managers. • The breach was traced to one employee clicking on a link. • Investigators cited insufficient monitoring of key logs. • The case illustrates the importance of a robust risk analysis/risk management program. Anthem’s recent $115 million settlement — one of the largest ever in a consumer data breach — shows how costly a breach can be for a healthcare organization. Risk managers should remember that even a much smaller breach could be financially devastating. A California federal district judge approved the settlement resolving a 2015 data breach at Anthem that exposed the data of 78 million members. The settlement will be divided among 19.1 million plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit. Each can claim up to $10,000 to cover out-of-pocket expenses related to the breach and can receive free credit monitoring services beyond what Anthem has already provided. (The settlement agreement is available online at: https://bit.ly/2jx3ehy.) While the numbers and costs associated with this breach are staggering, the issues at the root of it are quite simple, says Dianne J. Bourque, JD, an attorney with the Mintz law firm in Boston. “Someone clicked on a phishing email, intruders gained access to Anthem’s PHI [protected health information], and the ensuing enforcement action revealed that Anthem has no enterprisewide risk analysis,” Bourque says. “We see this fact pattern almost daily. The only thing different about the Anthem case is the large number of individuals affected.” “The Anthem breach should stand as a reminder to healthcare risk managers that this could easily happen to their organizations if they don’t pay attention to compliance fundamentals, especially a comprehensive security risk analysis, ongoing employee training — both formal and informal — and information system activity review,” she added. The Anthem breach should strike fear in healthcare leaders, says Mark Bower, general manager and chief revenue officer with Egress Software in Boston. “This is a shot across the bow for every CEO, CIO, and CFO,” Bower says. “Not every organization can absorb settlements of this size, not to mention the ongoing management and escalation costs, punitive fines from regulations like HIPAA and GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation], and revenue losses from customer churn that are also associated with data breaches.” The class-action suit shows that consumers possess a healthy appetite for compensation following a breach of their data, Bower says. Organizations that handle PHI, especially highly sensitive patient data, should use this to gauge what is acceptable financial risk when securing data, and invest in technology and training accordingly, he says.

Blog Feature

HIPAA

By: DOUG KANNEY
July 25th, 2018

When you were growing up, did your mother keep a special collection of dinnerware? Maybe she had a particular cabinet she kept it in, or maybe it was just hidden away for special occasions, but the point is, your mom had her reasons and designated those plates as unique and worth further protection.

Blog Feature

HIPAA | HIPAA Express

By: DOUG KANNEY
July 18th, 2018

According to the United States Department of Transportation, more than 50% of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections. It makes sense then for drivers to take special care when navigating these spots on the road.