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
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 July 19, Change Healthcare Ince. filed a breach report with HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concerning its mammoth ransomware attack and breach. The organization’s breach report to OCR identifies just 500 individuals as...more
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
On Feb. 21, 2024, the ransomware hacker group ALPHV, otherwise known as "BlackCat," disabled Change Healthcare's nationwide healthcare billing and information systems and demanded a ransom to unlock them....more
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
Cyber, Privacy, and Technology Report - Welcome to your monthly rundown of all things cyber, privacy, and technology, where we highlight all the happenings you may have missed....more
United Healthcare Group (UHG) CEO Andrew Witty was in a board meeting on Feb. 21 when officials interrupted with the news that Change Healthcare—a clearinghouse UHG subsidiary Optum had purchased for $1.3 billion in October...more
On February 14, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its annual reports to Congress detailing its actions to enforce the privacy, security, and breach notification...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced its second settlement in four months growing out of a ransomware attack on a health care business. Maryland-based Green Ridge...more
In this two-part Triage series, Gina Bertolini, Sarah Carlins, and Jianne McDonald analyze two recent HHS initiatives that address cybersecurity risks to hospitals and health systems nationwide. Cybersecurity events involving...more
News Briefs - New HHS Task Force Aims to Oversee AI in Healthcare - Details are emerging on a new HHS task force faced with a monumental task: creating a regulatory structure to oversee utilization of artificial intelligence...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced a settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with Green Ridge Behavioral Health, LLC...more
The healthcare sector is particularly vulnerable to cybersecurity risks and the stakes for patient care and safety are particularly high. Healthcare facilities are attractive targets for cyber criminals in light of their...more
Phishing has long been a favorite tactic for threat actors (hackers) to commence a cyberattack. The rapid expansion of more adaptable and available artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as natural language...more
Late last year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its first HIPAA settlement agreement involving a ransomware attack. In the press release announcing the settlement, HHS stated that they began...more
With a couple of “firsts,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is signaling that it is cracking down on healthcare organizations that fail to identify and address cybersecurity...more
Just imagine: your loved one needs an emergency room, right away, but the ER is closed due to a cyberattack. This is not a scary dream, but, unfortunately, a reality of healthcare delivery, today. Just earlier this fall, a...more
On December 7, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced its first-ever settlement involving a phishing attack under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Report on Patient Privacy 23, no. 11 (November, 2023) The American Hospital Association (AHA) is urging federal lawmakers to intervene with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) so that hospitals and health systems can...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
On Halloween, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $100,000 settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with Doctors’...more
Privacy Briefs: June 2023 - Long-term care pharmacy network PharMerica disclosed a breach involving more than 5.8 million patients, making it the largest breach reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the last...more
A strong cybersecurity program can help defend against cyber attacks and protect sensitive patient data. Thanks to a 2021 amendment of the HITECH Act, when a breach occurs, it can also reduce enforcement penalties. The...more
General and specialty compliance training from the comfort of your home or office! HCCA’s Regional Healthcare Compliance Conferences provide practitioners with virtual compliance training that includes updates on the...more