HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer on Progress and News at OCR
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
Podcast - Data Privacy and Tracking Technology Compliance
Patient Data and Privacy
2022 DSIR Deeper Dive: OCR’s Right of Access Initiative
HIPAA Tips With Williams Mullen - Telehealth After the Pandemic
Relaxed HIPAA Restrictions For Providers Using Telehealth
Webinar: Investigating and Resolving Sexual Assaults on Campus
On February 14, 2025, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear Colleague Letter about legal obligations for educational institutions under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the...more
On February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (the “Department”) issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” to “clarify and reaffirm” that schools, colleges and universities receiving “federal financial...more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has rescinded the name, image, and likeness (NIL) guidance under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 issued in the final days of the Biden...more
On February 14, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Education (DOE) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter threatening the federal funding of any academic institution that considers race in any manner...more
Each week as the new presidential administration takes shape, we get a clearer picture of how its priorities will affect federal agencies, and how those changes will affect the employers and educational institutions that...more
On February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a “Dear Colleague” Letter (DCL) and emailed it to K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions around the country. The DCL...more
On Friday, February 14, 2025, the United States Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) setting out its interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,...more
President Trump’s new administration just clarified that Title IX equity principles should not apply to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) payments, a decision that could have a significant impact on your college athletics...more
On Feb. 12, 2025, the Trump administration rescinded the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights’ guidance on how it planned to analyze name, image and likeness (NIL) activity under Title IX of the Education...more
In the final days of the Biden Administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the Security Rule under the Health...more
On February 5, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) entitled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports. This EO expresses strong disapproval of policies allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’...more
The saga that led Children’s Hospital Colorado to accept a fine of more than $500,000 imposed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) began on July 11, 2017, when a physician’s email account containing details on 3,300...more
In the wake of the pending House settlement, the Third Circuit’s opinion in Johnson v. NCAA, and the NLRB’s push for athlete employment and unionization, the spotlight has predictably shifted to colleges and universities who...more
On January 14, 2025, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a resolution agreement with the University of Washington following a Title VI complaint of alleged discrimination and harassment based...more
On January 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) announcing that it would enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 under the provisions...more
Confirming an anticipated policy shift, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Jan. 31, 2025 that it will enforce Title IX under the 2020 Title IX Rule. The announcement came after a...more
“Almost every stage of modern healthcare relies on stable and secure computer and network technologies.” The above is a direct quote from the Office of Civil Rights for Health & Human Services (“OCR”) in its proposed...more
Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to update the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule—the...more
The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently published a Letter and Resolution Agreement vindicating a male student we represented in a complaint against Notre Dame. As set forth in the published...more
On January 16, 2024, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the organization that enforces Title IX, including athletic gender equity, released a nine-page informal Fact Sheet labeled: Ensuring Equal Opportunity Based on Sex in...more
How to engage in name, image, and likeness activities (NIL) without running afoul of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a question colleges and universities have wrestled with since the NCAA first permitted the...more
On May 6, 2024, OCR published the final rule interpreting and implementing Section 1557 at 45 C.F.R. § 92 (the Final Rule). The Final Rule regulates the use of patient care decision support tools, including AI algorithms for...more
In early January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The Proposed Rule would modify the Security Standards for the Protection of...more
On April 22, 2024, the Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy Final Rule. The final rule limits the sharing of protected health...more
The legal saga surrounding the 2024 Title IX Regulations reached a new peak earlier this month. On January 9, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in favor of the...more