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 July 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office For Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $950,000 settlement with Heritage Valley Health System (“Heritage Valley”) and a three-year Corrective...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) issued two reports to Congress as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health...more
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Hospital Inc. in Tampa, Florida, has agreed to pay $19.564 million to settle false claims allegations over claims submitted to federal health care programs for items and...more
On February 6, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement with Montefiore Medical Center (“MMC”) for alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations and MMC agreed to pay $4.75 million and enter into a...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
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently announced its 46th settlement under its Right of Access Initiative since it was initially launched in 2019. Allegations in the recent...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
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
On November 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced an $80,000 HIPAA settlement with Saint Joseph’s Medical Center (“SJMC”) in New York State. The...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
Start with a records request. Add a seven months’ wait. Stir in the chaos of the pandemic, with most employees working from home. Blend in a perhaps-neglected post office box. Bake for two-and-a-half years....more
Over the past decade, the number of health care data breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has increased dramatically. From 2009 to 2022, over 5,000 data...more
On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with MedEvolve, Inc. for $350,000. MedEvolve provides practice and revenue cycle management and practice...more
OCR’s HIPAA Right of Access Initiative shows no signs of slowing down. On July 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of 11 more cases at a total of...more
After a long stretch of breach enforcement actions and settlements arising out of alleged technology gaps, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it settled a case...more
On August 23, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $300,640 settlement and a Corrective Action Plan (“CAP”) with New England Dermatology P.C., d/b/a...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has released information on its latest Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement actions. The government continues to pursue investigations and administrative...more
On March 28, 2022, Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of four enforcement actions, three resolved in 2021 and one resolved in 2022. There are some interesting aspects of this...more
On September 10, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced the twentieth settlement of an enforcement action under its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative...more
On June 2, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the 19th Resolution Agreement in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Right of...more
On June 2, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced that the Diabetes, Endocrinology & Lipidology Center, Inc., (DELC) agreed to pay $5,000, enter into a...more
Continuing its serious march against covered entities not allowing patients access to their records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has settled two more cases in two days in its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the...more
On March 24th and March 26th, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it settled its respective seventeenth and eighteenth enforcement actions as part of...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently settled two additional enforcement actions as part of its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which is a program implemented by...more