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 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a civil monetary penalty (“CMP”) of $70,000 against a solo dental practice that provides family dental...more
Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 9 (September, 2022) - When recommending best practices, federal privacy and security officials stress that organizations need to follow their protected health information (PHI) wherever...more
Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 8 (August, 2022) - Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences’ (OSUCHS) breach might not have seemed all that serious at the time: No data is believed to have been misused,...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced on July 15, 2022, that it has resolved 11 investigations conducted under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Last fall, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) launched its Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative (“CCFI”) as part of its effort to “combat new and emerging cyber threats to the security of sensitive information and...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently settled a tenth case under its right-to-access initiative with California-based Riverside Psychiatric Medical Group (RPMG), for $25,000....more
On October 8, 2020, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal (AG) announced that his office has entered into a multi-state settlement agreement with Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) stemming from an investigation of a...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been actively enforcing HIPAA regulations this year, including a series of seven settlements under OCR’s Right of Access...more
Following a very quiet start to HIPAA settlement activity in 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced eight settlements with covered entities and business...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced that it has settled potential violations of HIPAA with Athens Orthopedic Clinic PA (Athens) for $1.5 million, following an...more
On September 21, 2020, the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $1.5 million settlement with Athens Orthopedic Clinic, a Georgia orthopedic clinic, to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability...more
On September 25, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it reached a settlement with Premera Blue Cross (PBC), a health plan operating in Washington and Alaska,...more
With apologies to John Donne, ask not for whom the bells tolls, HIPAA business associates, it tolls for thee! While it has been the law for some time that business associates could be held directly liable for breaches,...more
On September 15, 2020, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it had settled five investigations under its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative....more
In this week’s episode, Rebecca Schaefer and Hannah Maroney discuss a string of recent HIPAA enforcement actions which demonstrate that the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the agency tasked with enforcing HIPAA, is...more
Small health care organizations may think they are under the radar of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), but a settlement the OCR agreed to last week should disabuse small health care providers of that notion....more
On March 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) signaled to covered entities of all sizes that they need to take their HIPAA obligations seriously. OCR entered into a...more
According to a December 20, 2019 Report by HIPAA Journal, nearly 39 million health care data breaches had been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”), Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) by the end...more
West Georgia Ambulance, Inc. (West Georgia) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) entered into a $65,000 no-fault settlement agreement and two year corrective action...more
SDNY Rejects Standing under “Increased Risk” Theory Where Data Not Targeted or Stolen - The Southern District of New York rejected a settlement that would have resolved a class action based on the unauthorized (and...more
Last week, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its second enforcement action and settlement with a provider for failing to comply with HIPAA’s patient access requirements. Korunda Medical, LLC, a primary care and...more
One health system recently learned the cost of relying too heavily on the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule’s “low probability of compromise” standard when it failed to notify all affected individuals and report the HIPAA breach...more
The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) entered into a $3 million no-fault settlement agreement and two year corrective...more
Elite Dental Associates, Dallas (Elite Dental) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entered into a $10,000 no-fault settlement agreement and two year corrective...more
- Fresenius Medical Care North America Inc. has agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle allegations that it tested dialysis patients for Hepatitis B surface antigen more often than medically necessary and billed Medicare for the...more