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
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
Kaiser Permanente is notifying 13.4 million current and former members that their personal information may have been compromised when it was transmitted to tech giants Google, Microsoft Bing and X (formerly Twitter) when...more
On March 18, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated its guidance on the use of online tracking technologies by covered entities and business associates (regulated...more
Ideal for professionals with some compliance knowledge and experience, HCCA’s Healthcare Privacy Compliance Academy offers practitioners a deeper understanding of effective compliance management in a healthcare setting. The...more
2023 marked 20 years since the first compliance deadline under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (“HIPAA”) privacy rule. Despite the two decades of experience with HIPAA, compliance continues to remain...more
Is your organization a business associate? You could be subject to enforcement action if you fail to protect health information within your control from ransomware attacks. In October, for the first time, the U.S....more
October has been a busy month for the OCR, which is tasked with enforcing the regulations issued under HIPAA. In the past week, the OCR released two new guidance documents aimed at reducing the privacy and security risks...more
On April 27, 2023, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law the My Health My Data Act (the "Act"), which will regulate the collection, use, and disclosure of "consumer health data" ("Consumer Health Data" or "CHD"). The...more
As a Halloween treat for HIPAA-covered entities and business associates, on October 31, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a new video on its YouTube channel, in which senior...more
Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 5 (May, 2022) - Compared to other agencies, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a little fish in the big federal pond, but it has an outsize effect on HIPAA covered entities (CEs) and...more
On April 6, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on "recognized security practices" and on sharing civil...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
Report on Patient Privacy 21, no. 5 (May 2021) - Given the hundreds of thousands of HIPAA covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) and the two dozen or so enforcement actions the HHS Office for Civil Rights...more
On January 21, 2020, the far-reaching HIPAA Privacy Proposed Rule, initially released on December 10, 2020, was published in the Federal Register. Despite speculation that the publication timeline would be altered when the...more
The Compliance Institute is celebrating 25 years! Join us for the Compliance Institute's 25th anniversary, April 19-22, 2021. This year, HCCA is excited to celebrate over two decades of compliance excellence with our...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
Report on Patient Privacy 20, no. 6 (June 2020): Being a health care provider in the midst of a pandemic is complicated enough, between offering telehealth services, perhaps for the first time, and helping workers continue...more
On March 3, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $100,000 settlement and corrective action plan with Steven A. Porter, M.D. to resolve potential...more
As the decade winds down, it’s hard to believe that the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules are almost twenty years old. It has been ten years since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights...more
“TMI” usually means “too much information”, but it was used aptly by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as an acronym for a covered entity that exposed protected health information (PHI) of more than 300,000 patients through...more
Organizations that meet the definition of "covered entity" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and its implementing regulations (HIPAA) must be diligent to maintain the privacy and security...more
We previously reported that Cottage Health, a health care entity operating several hospitals in California, settled with the State of California for $2 million for a security incident that occurred in 2013. On February 7,...more
A Florida staffing agency which provides physicians to hospitals and nursing homes, has agreed to a $500,000 settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. The settlement comes...more
A single, multidisciplinary entity, like a university, may include certain departments that use PHI, and other departments that do not. Such institutions are eligible to (and should) self-identify as “hybrid entities” to...more
The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities and business associates to implement physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect protected health information (PHI). The U.S. Department of Health and Human...more