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
2024 was a record year for cyberattacks in the healthcare sector. According to the Breach Portal maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), to date this year, there...more
We just want to provide a friendly reminder that, before key staff depart for the holidays, HIPAA covered entities and business associates should finalize their compliance with the 2024 HIPAA amendments related to...more
It’s not immediately obvious why someone would want to disclose a health care test result as part of a job application. But one such request spurred a Pennsylvania entity to provide a lot more than that: it sent her whole...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is required by law to perform periodic audits of covered entities and business associates to ensure their compliance with HIPAA Security Rule...more
On December 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) announced a settlement with Holy Redeemer Family Medicine, a Pennsylvania covered entity, regarding an alleged violation...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), which enforces HIPAA, recently announced a new enforcement initiative, the Risk Analysis Initiative, in conjunction with OCR’s seventh...more
Welcome to our seventh issue of The Health Record - our healthcare law insights e-newsletter. This will be our final issue of 2024. When we started this publication earlier this year, our goal was to provide our clients,...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
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
On April 22, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Final Rule titled HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (Final Rule)....more
In the spirit of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) released a new video on October 17, 2024, to promote awareness on ransomware trends in the healthcare industry and how HIPAA subject...more
Current and potential patients are taking to the internet to share opinions and make decisions about healthcare providers. Good reviews can convert prospective healthcare consumers into patients, while bad reviews,...more
Effective June 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS) issued a Final Rule modifying the HIPAA Privacy Rule to enhance reproductive health care privacy. This change follows the...more
On August 29, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS-OCR”) withdrew its appeal of an order by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas’...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
On September 4, Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), challenging two key Health Insurance Portability and...more
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
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and subsequent state abortion bans, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a...more
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Office for Civil Rights issued a final privacy rule to support reproductive health privacy. The rule does not allow the sharing of reproductive health...more
Attestations are at the heart of permissible disclosures under the HHS Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) new reproductive health privacy rule—and OCR wants covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BA) to use them now. The...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
In a consequential decision for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-regulated entities, on June 20, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in American Hospital Association...more
On June 20, 2024, a Texas federal court vacated the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR's) controversial guidance concerning Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates, available here....more
On April 22, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final regulatory updates to the Privacy Rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of...more