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
After more than a year since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued the proposed changes to the...more
Report on Patient Privacy 23, no. 12 (December, 2023) Spring 2020 was a terrifying period in the annals of COVID-19, and New York was at the epicenter. COVID-19 cases, and deaths, already the highest in the nation, were...more
Providing care via electronic communication when patients and providers are in separate locations, known as telemedicine or telehealth, has been possible for decades. The exigent circumstances sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic...more
Telehealth experienced massive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, due in no small part to various regulatory and reimbursement policies that federal agencies implemented following a declaration by the US Department of...more
During the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), many federal telehealth rules were made flexible to accommodate the need for continued access to healthcare, including prescribing controlled substances without an in-person...more
On May 10, 2023, HHS announced that many telehealth and teleprescribing flexibilities will remain in place after the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023. Congress extended many telehealth...more
The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in the United States came to an end on May 11, 2023. Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that its enforcement...more
This Week in Washington: Debt Ceiling Continues to Loom Over the Capitol; DEA Extends COVID-19 Controlled Medications Prescribing Telehealth Flexibilities...more
The Notifications of Enforcement Discretion issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act during the...more
The Biden administration announced on January 30, 2023 that the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) would officially end on May 11, 2023. The PHE declaration, which first was issued by the Secretary of the US Department of...more
At 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 11, 2023, the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declaration will conclude, more than three years after taking effect in January 2020. The PHE declaration has enabled the U.S. Department of...more
A popular saying is that it takes 21 days to form a habit and about 66 days on average for a behavior to become automatic. If that is correct, the three-year period of unprecedented waivers and flexibilities in the provision...more
In April, 2020, in an effort to facilitate a national pivot to telehealth in light of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a policy...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced its plan to end the Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 on May 11, 2023. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency declarations, legislation, and...more
On Jan. 30, 2023, the Biden Administration announced its intent to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11, 2023. Thereafter on April 11, 2023, the...more
On April 11, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) confirmed that four notifications of enforcement discretion regarding enforcement of the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach...more
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health emergency (PHE), the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued four Notifications of Enforcement Discretion (referred to as...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) has announced that several notifications of enforcement discretion issued during the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”) will expire...more
On April 11, 2023, OCR announced that the Notifications of Enforcement Discretion issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and...more
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the expiration of its enforcement discretion related to compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996...more
On April 11, 2023 – one month in advance of the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023 – the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) confirmed that various Notifications of Enforcement Discretion...more
Like many regulatory standards, enforcement of HIPAA was relaxed as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. With the end of the public health emergency declaration on May 11, 2023, the broad relaxed HIPAA enforcement also...more
On April 11, 2023, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its plan for termination of the existing notifications of enforcement discretion related to the expiration of the...more
The Biden Administration announced that the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) will expire at the end of the day on May 11, 2023. As we draw closer to the expiration date of the PHE, do you feel fine about your...more