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 February 14, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its annual reports to Congress detailing its actions to enforce the privacy, security, and breach notification...more
Report on Patient Privacy 23, no. 11 (November, 2023) The American Hospital Association (AHA) is urging federal lawmakers to intervene with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) so that hospitals and health systems can...more
On February 17, 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released two companion reports to Congress detailing its actions in 2021 to enforce the privacy, security, and breach...more
CYBERSECURITY - Cyber-Attack Disrupts Public Services in Fremont County, Colorado - Government offices and public services in Fremont County, Colorado, have been disrupted since August 17, 2022, due to a “cybersecurity...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
Health care providers and contractors continue to be a popular target for hackers. Recently, CHSPSC LLC (CHSPSC), which provides various services to hospitals and clinics indirectly owned by Community Health Systems, Inc. of...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
Although Amazon and Google respond to reports of vulnerabilities in popular home smart assistants Alexa and Google Home, hackers continually work hard to exploit any vulnerabilities in order to listen to users’ every word to...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
For data security buffs like me, the recent McAfee® Labs Threats Report, December 2018 is, or should be, a top pick on the list. Well, maybe not for the holiday reading list. We need to be careful not to bring up the results...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
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
Just days after the summit between the U.S. and North Korea, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about a malicious malware, a Trojan malware variant known as...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
Our experience last year is consistent with the conclusion of a new report issued by Cryptonite in its 2017 Health Care Cyber Research Report—that the number of hacking events targeted at health care entities involving...more
The news about data breaches always seems to be dire lately. Some good news: data breaches in the healthcare industry were lower in October than in September, based upon reportable data breaches 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
Every where you look these days, there seems to be another report of a cyber attack--attacks which do not discriminate based on industry type, size of business, or impact. In other words, everyone is vulnerable. In fact, the...more
Following the frequent and varied ransomware attacks on health care entities over the past few years, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published guidance last summer to the health care industry reminding it that a ransomware...more