Risk Management

Comments from the head of Health and Human Services signal a shift to more aggressive punishment for privacy breaches and security lapses, and a more extensive HIPAA audit strategy by HHS’ Office of Civil Rights.

Unlike cases involving employee negligence, liability is not automatically imputed to the employer for intentional or willful employee conduct. However, the employer can still be liable if its own negligent acts put the employee in a position to do harm.

The Superstorm Sandy jurisdictions have yet to address whether flood exclusions bar coverage for loss by storm surge, but a recent federal case in New York suggests the matter may be settled similarly to Hurricane Katrina cases.

Compliance software provider Cindy Knezevich observes the trends in PricewaterhouseCooper’s State of Compliance survey, which asks respondents to pick their top three areas of perceived risk to their businesses. There were some surprises – social media slipped from 2013 to 2014 – and, Knezevich says, a worrying lack of concern for IT security.

GM CEO Mary Barra’s newly-launched campaign, the “Speak Up for Safety” program, is meant to encourage exactly the kind of internal reporting that was ignored in the lead-up to a massive recall of more than six million cars, and the death of at least 13 customers.