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
In addition to holiday celebrations, the month of December typically ushers in a final round of enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), and 2024 is no...more
In the first part of this blog post, we looked into the OCR and FTC’s focus on third-party tracking technologies. We also reviewed the AHA Lawsuit and its impact for the use of tracking technologies. In this blog post, we...more
Covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) may receive a “discount” for having recognized security practices (RSPs) in place when the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) calculates financial penalties for Security...more
A business associate agreement (BAA) is a written contract between a covered entity (CE) and a business associate (BA) that—among other requirements—(1) establishes the permitted and required uses and disclosures of protected...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has abandoned its appeal of a federal judge’s ruling overturning OCR’s guidance prohibiting covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) from using the web-tracking technologies...more
For most healthcare providers and businesses, signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is a standard practice. When contracting to provide services with an entity governed by the Health Insurance Portability and...more
On June 20, 2024, a Texas federal judge ruled that guidance published by the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) prohibiting covered entities from disclosing information collected by third-party...more
On June 20, 2024, the Northern District of Texas issued its final order in American Hospital Association, et al. v. Becerra, et al. (AHA), granting the plaintiffs’ (the American Hospital Association, two Texas health systems...more
Last week, a federal district court in Texas issued a decision declaring unlawful and vacating a central component of a guidance document (the Bulletin) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil...more
A recent federal court decision is a victory for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) covered entities using third-party tracking tools on unauthenticated webpages. These are websites available to the...more
On June 20, 2024, a federal court vacated key portions of regulatory guidance on the treatment of information collected by online tracking tools. At issue was the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil...more
On April 26, 2024, almost a year after issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the Privacy Rule, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) finalized the HIPAA Privacy Rule to...more
After months of uncertainty and multiple letters from industry associations advocating on behalf of the healthcare industry with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), covered...more
On March 18, 2024, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) within the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) updated prior guidance concerning the use of online tracking technologies, including cookies, by Covered...more
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights recently published a final rule (the “Final Rule“) which provides additional privacy protections related to the use and disclosure of reproductive...more
The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to eliminate the federal constitutional right to abortion continues to alter the legal landscape across the country. On April 26, 2024, the...more
On April 26, 2024, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) issued a Final Rule amending the HIPAA Privacy Rule to protect the ability of individuals to receive reproductive...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published its Final Rule titled HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy in the Federal Register on April 26, 2024....more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has, as part of its mandate, the responsibility to enforce the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule....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 April 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Final Rule modifying the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) recently updated its controversial, year-old guidance document on the use of online tracking technologies by healthcare providers and other...more
On March 18, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) updated its guidance regarding the use of online tracking technologies. The American Hospital Association and others filed a...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently published an executive summary (Report) outlining key enforcement activities of the Health Insurance Portability and...more