On May 8, there were two new developments in Pennsylvania that help psychologists and dentists and their respective patients as the Commonwealth continues to take steps to reopen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First,...more
On May 6, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order providing a wide range of health care practitioners with protection from civil liability for good faith actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. This...more
While we would normally be fixated on April 15th being “tax day”, the COVID-19 pandemic is appropriately the focus of all our collective energies and appreciation for the health care providers who are treating those who...more
On March 28, 2020, in connection with the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is expanding its accelerated and advance...more
4/8/2020
/ Accelerated Payments ,
CARES Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Medicare ,
Nursing Homes ,
Physicians ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Relief Measures
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on April 2, 2020 that it will not impose penalties for violations of certain provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule against...more
On March 23, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 109 ordering that all elective surgeries performed on adults be suspended in the state after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27 in light of the COVID-19...more
Several telemedicine provisions were recently updated at the federal level in an effort to increase patient access to health care services, and New Jersey enacted a telemedicine statute on March 19 in an attempt to address...more
On March 18, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Delaware Governor John Carney issued a second modification to his March 12, 2020 state of emergency declaration. ...more
On March 17, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is temporarily easing enforcement of certain regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
On March 17, 2020, the Trump administration announced expanded Medicare telehealth coverage allowing Medicare beneficiaries greater access to health care services in the safety of their homes as a “temporary resource.”...more
As health care providers prepare for an increase in patients infected or who suspect they are infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), providers have many considerations to ensure they maintain regulatory...more
It is no surprise that the health care delivery system continues to rapidly evolve through mergers, acquisitions, affiliations and consolidations. Through these changes, an increasing number of physicians are becoming...more
On March 3, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $100,000 settlement and corrective action plan with Steven A. Porter, M.D. to resolve potential...more
3/9/2020
/ Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Settlement
The Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, LLP Health Care Practice includes attorneys that handle regulatory, compliance, transactional and litigation needs for clients across the entire health care delivery system, including: ...more
On December 11, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , announced a settlement with a covered entity, Korunda Medical, LLC (“Korunda”), to resolve alleged...more
On November 27, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced a $2.175 million settlement and Corrective Action Plan (CAP) with Sentara Hospitals (Sentara) to...more
On November 7, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a $1.6 million civil money penalty (CMP) against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (TX...more
On November 5, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $3 million settlement with the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) to settle potential...more
On October 23, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it had imposed a $2,154,000 civil money penalty (CMP) against a Miami-based health system for...more
On October 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), each issued a proposed rule to amend respectively the...more
On October 2, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it had reached a $10,000 monetary settlement with a Dallas-based dental practice to settle...more
More than 400 dental offices across the United States were the victim of a recent ransomware attack that prevented dentists from accessing patient records and patient personal data. ...more
On September 9, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced its first enforcement action and settlement under its Right of Access Initiative. Earlier in 2019,...more
IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute recently released their 2019 Cost of Data Breach Report (the “Report”). This is the 14th annual report these groups have published. ...more
On May 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), released a new fact sheet describing 10 ways in which a “business associate” can be liable under HIPAA. ...more