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 October 2, 2024, New York adopted new regulations requiring general hospitals to implement heightened cybersecurity safeguards. General hospitals, as defined in Article 28 of the NY Public Health Law, generally must begin...more
Change Healthcare Inc. has amended its initial breach report to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to state that 100 million individuals were impacted by its mammoth ransomware attack and breach. However, as of Oct. 24,...more
President Ronald Reagan famously quipped, "I think you all know that I've always felt that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."1 At an Oct. 23-24, 2024,...more
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) announced on September 26, 2024, that it had entered a settlement with Cascade Eye and Skin Centers (together, Cascade) for $250,000 following...more
The cyber breach at Change Healthcare in 2024 stands out as one of the most significant cyber-attacks in recent memory. Its repercussions extend far beyond immediate industry disruptions, resonating deeply in regulatory...more
On June 20, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to vacate its guidance that had restricted...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
Phishing, the act of impersonating a person or business to deceive a target into revealing sensitive information, has quickly become the tool of choice for scammers and cybercriminals. In 2023, the Federal Bureau of...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
Kaiser Permanente is notifying 13.4 million current and former members that their personal information may have been compromised when it was transmitted to tech giants Google, Microsoft Bing and X (formerly Twitter) when...more
On March 18, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated its guidance on the use of online tracking technology by covered entities regulated by the Health...more
Cyberattacks and data incidents are rapidly increasing, and third-party services companies are a frequent source of exposure for healthcare providers. Healthcare is a prime target for cybercriminals, with ransomware and...more
Ideal for professionals with some compliance knowledge and experience, HCCA’s Healthcare Privacy Compliance Academy offers practitioners a deeper understanding of effective compliance management in a healthcare setting. The...more
2024 is shaping up to be a very active year for regulatory and enforcement developments in the healthcare industry – developments that concern not just hospitals and nursing facilities, but many non-healthcare companies as...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 number of large data breaches, those involving 500 or more people, exposing protected health information has increased exponentially in the last few years, and ransomware and hacking are the primary cyber threats in...more
On February 14, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a new, final version of their guidance for...more
On February 16, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a final version of the cybersecurity resource guide (the “Guide”) with respect to the HIPAA...more
As we reflect on the flurry of activity in the health care data privacy and security space in 2023 and look ahead to what will continue to be a busy 2024, we are seeing the early stages of federal agency movement to align the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The health care sector faces escalating cybersecurity risks given its size, technological dependence and the sensitive nature of data used therein. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human...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
The Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has released a concept paper outlining its new cybersecurity strategies for the health care sector, identifying cybersecurity priorities, potential future regulations and...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
2023 marked 20 years since the first compliance deadline under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (“HIPAA”) privacy rule. Despite the two decades of experience with HIPAA, compliance continues to remain...more