Privacy Series: HIPAA Breaches - When It Is, and When It Is Not a Breach
Compliance Perspective: What's New in Healthcare Privacy
Over the course of the past few months, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), both of which are divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and...more
Report on Patient Privacy Volume 22, Number 11. November 2022 - The second largest nonprofit hospital chain in the U.S. has been grappling with an Oct. 3 cybersecurity incident that affected facilities across the country,...more
Cyber-attacks on health care entities are becoming increasingly frequent, and the resulting data breaches are often complex. In the event of a cyber-attack, health care entities and their business associates must adhere to...more
According to the 2022 State of Ransomware Report issued recently by Sophos, it surveyed 5,600 IT professionals from 31 countries, including professionals in the health care sector. Those professionals in the health care...more
HIPAA requires covered entities and business associates to report to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) all breaches of unsecured protected health information when the incident involves fewer than 500 individuals no later than...more
The California Attorney General ("AG") has issued guidance reminding health care providers of their duty to report health care data breaches and to comply with other state and federal data privacy laws....more
Cyberattacks against healthcare providers accounted for 79% of all reported data breaches in 2020. (See here). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and...more
Regulatory bodies are upping the ante when it comes to settling with companies that have suffered data breaches. In addition to the below settlements, see also the settlement between the OCR and Dignity Health....more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced that it has settled potential violations of HIPAA with Athens Orthopedic Clinic PA (Athens) for $1.5 million, following an...more
Health care organizations continue to be a popular target for hackers. According to information from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), over 30 reports of data breaches have been filed by health care...more
It is being reported that LifeLabs, a Canadian lab company that is the largest provider of laboratory diagnostics and lab testing services in Canada, recently paid an undisclosed ransom to hackers who compromised its computer...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it has fined the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (TXHHS) $1.6 million for HIPAA violations. This is one of the few fines the OCR has levied against a state agency....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
In accordance with the Inflation Adjustment Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has updated its regulations to reflect required annual inflation-related increases to civil monetary penalties, including...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) imposed $2,154,000 in civil monetary penalties against Jackson Health System in Florida for failing to meet HIPAA privacy and security...more
Health care providers operate in one of the most highly regulated industries in terms of compliance and governmental oversight. As a result, providers face a number of regulatory and compliance challenges each year....more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on October 23, 2019, that Jackson Health System (“Jackson”), a not for profit hospital system comprised of six hospitals, urgent care centers, nursing facilities and primary care...more
Regulators, industry experts, and researchers provided insight into health privacy and security enforcement trends, emerging threats, and new tools at a recent conference focused on the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Consistent with our experience, security firm McAfee has confirmed in a report that ransomware attacks have doubled in 2019. Medical providers have been hit hard this year, and one provider, Wood Ranch Medical, located in...more
What have you done for me lately? Now that the tune is stuck in your head, specifically, have you recently conducted a thorough and up to date risk assessment in accordance with the requirements of the Health Insurance...more
As readers of this blog know, data breaches in the health care industry are all too common. Healthcare organizations are an attractive target for hackers because of the nature and amount of personal information that they...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it has entered into a settlement with a business associate that provides electronic medical records services to health...more
Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (MIE) and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OCR) entered into a $100,000 settlement and two-year...more
Until recently, the annual limit for civil monetary penalties (CMP) that could be levied against covered entities and business associates in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a notice in the Federal Register regarding its Enforcement Discretion (84 Fed. Reg. 18151) on April 30, 2019. HHS announced that HHS will now apply a different cumulative annual...more