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
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
The use of online tracking technologies, which provide valuable insights into the behaviors of website and mobile application users, has become routine in today’s online ecosystem. Companies employ tracking technologies to...more
Cyber-attacks on health care entities are becoming increasingly frequent, and the resulting data breaches are often complex. In the event of a cyber-attack, health care entities and their business associates must adhere to...more
HIPAA requires covered entities and business associates to report to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) all breaches of unsecured protected health information when the incident involves fewer than 500 individuals no later than...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently issued its Summer 2021 Cybersecurity Newsletter, which focuses on controlling access to electronic PHI (ePHI) and the HIPAA Security...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 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
Given the choice between credit card data and digital health records, cybercriminals prefer the latter. A stolen credit card can be canceled. Electronic protected health information (ePHI) with its treasure-trove of...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
It is being reported that LifeLabs, a Canadian lab company that is the largest provider of laboratory diagnostics and lab testing services in Canada, recently paid an undisclosed ransom to hackers who compromised its computer...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) imposed $2,154,000 in civil monetary penalties against Jackson Health System in Florida for failing to meet HIPAA privacy and security...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on October 23, 2019, that Jackson Health System (“Jackson”), a not for profit hospital system comprised of six hospitals, urgent care centers, nursing facilities and primary care...more
Regulators, industry experts, and researchers provided insight into health privacy and security enforcement trends, emerging threats, and new tools at a recent conference focused on the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Until recently, the annual limit for civil monetary penalties (CMP) that could be levied against covered entities and business associates in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a notice in the Federal Register regarding its Enforcement Discretion (84 Fed. Reg. 18151) on April 30, 2019. HHS announced that HHS will now apply a different cumulative annual...more
After a quiet winter, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) revived with the spring, issuing a set of frequently asked questions and two recent announcements. ...more
The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) is the federal agency that oversees compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and its implementing regulations (“HIPAA”). In that regard, among other...more
On February 7, 2019, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published the resolution agreement for its final HIPAA settlement of 2018. ...more
A relatively quiet year for HIPAA enforcement is ending with a small flourish. The Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced two settlements with covered entities within the...more
The Office for Civil Rights has announced that it has fined Lakeland, Florida based Advanced Care Hospitalists (ACH) $500,000 for an impermissible disclosure of protected health information by one of its business associates. ...more
In the age of electronic medical records and ransomware attacks, recent focus with regard to HIPAA compliance seems to be on electronic security. How are your electronic medical records stored? Do you require two-factor...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that an administrative law judge has upheld its fourth largest HIPAA penalty against the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center....more
The recently released Protenus Healthcare Breach Barometer report notes that in January, 2018, at least 473,807 patient records were compromised in 37 breaches reported to the Office for Civil Rights. ...more
According to a recent U.S. Government Interagency report, ransomware is the fastest growing malware threat, targeting users of all types. An incredible 51 percent of respondents in a January 2017 study by the Ponemon...more
Energy and Critical Infrastructure Industries Warned of Increased Attacks by FBI and DHS - The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement on October 20, 2017 warning of an increased danger of a...more