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 August 29, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) withdrew its appeal of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s June 20, 2024, decision in American...more
On August 19, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) filed a notice of appeal of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s June 20, 2024, decision in American...more
On June 28, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (Loper Bright), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of Chevron deference, upending 40 years of precedent and significantly shifting power to the courts to...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
The HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules apply to healthcare providers who engage in certain electronic transactions, healthcare clearinghouses, and health plans, including employee group health plans with...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
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
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
If the penultimate enforcement settlement of 2023 issued by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sounds familiar, that’s with good reason. And the last one of the year should ring some bells, too....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
On June 15, 2023, OCR announced a settlement with Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (Yakima) after completing a HIPAA investigation regarding allegations that hospital security guards accessed medical records of 419 patients....more
Cybersecurity attacks, such as malware, phishing emails, and password attacks, are a growing threat to patients and medical practices. Cyber attacks can significantly disrupt patient care, including by exposing confidential...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into a Resolution Agreement (“Agreement”) with Banner Health on behalf of Banner Health Affiliated Covered Entities (“Banner”) to remedy...more
In a December 2022 bulletin published by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS made clear that the use of third-party tracking technologies by covered entities and business...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 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently released new guidance (the “Guidance”) to help ensure that individuals may continue to benefit from audio-only telehealth...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued new guidance (Guidance) on the use of remote communication technologies to deliver audio-only telehealth in accordance with...more
On April 6, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit public comments on the implementation of the “safe harbor” under the Health...more
Report on Patient Privacy 21, no. 12 (December, 2021) - Amid the letters of congratulations to new HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Director Lisa Pino is a plea from the American Hospital Association (AHA): “victims” of...more
It’s no secret that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) exists to protect the privacy of patients and their sensitive health information. However, understanding the importance of HIPAA...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights in Action (OCR) issued a warning that cybercriminals are attempting to exploit a critical vulnerability in VMware software. This alert originates from...more
A recent settlement agreement between a clinical laboratory and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to resolve potential HIPAA Security Rule violations proves to be a...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Court”) vacated a $4,348,000 civil monetary penalty (“CMP”) imposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“HHS-OCR”) in...more
On December 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its Industry Report on the HIPAA audits it conducted in 2016 and 2017. OCR found widespread noncompliance with...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