Privacy Series: HIPAA Breaches - When It Is, and When It Is Not a Breach
Compliance Perspective: What's New in Healthcare Privacy
Who will notify the potentially millions of individuals whose information might have been jeopardized by the massive cyberattack on Change Healthcare? Since the affiliate of UnitedHealth Group (UHG) first reported the...more
On October 31, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a press release announcing that it has settled with Doctors’ Management Services for $100,000 following a ransomware attack that compromised the protected health...more
Healthcare breaches, including ransomware attacks, continue to increase. As a result, many healthcare organizations seeking cyber coverage to help defray the costs associated with a ransomware attack or other data incident...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
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
Report on Patient Privacy 20, no. 12 (December 10, 2020) - Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks as the company races to deploy its COVID-19...more
Report on Patient Privacy 20, no. 11 (November 2020) - In her 14-plus years of investigating and blogging about hacking and breaches, “Dissent” has been yelled at, threatened with lawsuits and accused of being a criminal....more
On October 8, 2020, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal (AG) announced that his office has entered into a multi-state settlement agreement with Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) stemming from an investigation of a...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
Beginning in 2016, the computer hacking organization known as “The Dark Overlord,” began to target victims in the St. Louis, Missouri area, including various health care providers, several accounting firms, and a medical...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
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
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
July 2019 was the worst month in history for health care data breaches, with a total of 50 breaches that affected a total of more than 500 records reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) according to HIPAA Journal. ...more
The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) breach notification regulations require covered entities to self-report the unauthorized access, use or disclosure of unprotected protected health information...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that 2018 was a significant year in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement activity. ...more
Health care organizations’ lack of compliance with the data privacy and security requirements of both state laws and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification...more
A lawsuit has been filed by the attorneys general of 12 states against a company called Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE) arising out of a 2015 data breach involving stolen medical records for millions of individuals. The...more
Phishing attacks continue to hit health care providers and experts say the attacks will become even more frequent in 2019. ...more
In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine the European Data Protection Board's published opinions on data protection impact assessments, an Ohio court's ruling that bitcoin is covered insured...more
The health care industry is racing to adopt cutting-edge technology to provide patients with the best treatment possible at the lowest possible cost. ...more
This week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an investigative report that outlined cyber incidents that nine public companies had experienced, causing fraudulent losses totaling more than $100 million. The...more
We all remember Kronos—the malicious malware that was sold by Russian underground forums in 2014 for $7,000. If you bought it, you were promised updates and development of new modules. The Kronos developers recently released...more
On May 29, 2018, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed changes to Colorado law that significantly increase potential data breach burdens and financial penalties on entities operating in Colorado.1 Beginning September 1,...more
We have previously reported on the ongoing cybersecurity issues with St. Jude defibrillators [view related posts here, here, and here]. On June 29, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified the required firmware...more