Find Someone Observant: The Vital Role of Facility Security Officers
2023 DSIR Report Deeper Dive into the Data
Guidepost in Motion - Cybersecurity Frameworks and Metrics Part 2
Debra Geroux and Scott Wrobel on Responding to Data Breaches
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
Recognizing the evolving landscape of care delivery and growth of telehealth, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a resource guide aimed at assisting telehealth providers in explaining the privacy...more
New York Gov Kathy Hochul is touting her proposed statewide cybersecurity regulations for hospitals and health systems as “nation-leading,” and, if approved, those entities will have until February 2025 to comply with the new...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have released version 3.4 of their Security Risk Assessment...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
In a rare move, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a warning to hospitals and health systems to prioritize the patching of a two-year-old vulnerability in picture archive communication systems...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently published its findings from audits conducted in 2016 and 2017 of covered entities’ and business associates’ compliance with...more
In the final days of 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Health and Human Service (HHS) released a HIPAA Audits Industry Report (“the Report”), that could be quite helpful to covered entities and business...more
On October 28, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a joint cybersecurity advisory (the...more
Health insurer Anthem, Inc. has finally reached a settlement with a coalition of 41 states plus the District of Columbia, and a separate settlement with California, to resolve state attorney general investigations of a data...more
Why It Matters - In order to safeguard their information, health care and life science organizations should remain vigilant in monitoring DHCoE developments and initiatives, including any policy/regulation clarifications...more
Report on Patient Privacy 20, no. 1 (January 2020) - In the waning days of 2019, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) didn’t halt the HIPAA enforcement momentum it had built up during the last quarter of the year, dinging...more
West Georgia Ambulance, Inc. (West Georgia) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) entered into a $65,000 no-fault settlement agreement and two year corrective action...more
Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 28, Number 40. (November 11, 2019) - - In a new Medicare compliance review, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) said Angels Care Home Health in Salina, Kansas, didn’t comply with...more
Health care providers and others who must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) have specific requirements under the Security Rule to HIPAA when it comes to their mainte-nance...more
The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released an updated Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool this week. All covered entities and business...more
As part of the ongoing HHS OCR HIPAA audit initiative, it is conducting “HIPAA desk audits.” These audits don’t involve auditors coming in your facility. Instead, covered entities are being asked to submit documents on...more
In our April 8, 2016, advisory, we discussed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) “Phase 2” audit program. Then, we could only make educated guesses about what documents OCR...more
As a part of its continued efforts to assess compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for...more
What covered entities and business associates can do to prepare for the next round of audits. On July 11, the HIPAA Phase 2 audits commenced when 167 covered entities received notice of a desk audit from the Department...more
Earlier this month, privacy and security professionals from around the globe gathered for “Privacy. Security. Risk. 2015”—the second joint conference between the International Association of Privacy Professionals and the...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced a $750,000 fine and resolution agreement, including a Corrective Action Plan (CAP), for Cancer Care Group, P.C. (CCG), a...more
Everyone in healthcare knows that the next round of HIPAA audits is coming. Covered entities and business associates have long been advised to review and update their HIPAA security risk analyses, have business associate...more
On April 27, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a resolution agreement with Cornell Prescription Pharmacy (CPP) pursuant to which CPP paid a $125,000...more
The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) recently released a new and improved version 2.0 of their Guide to Privacy and Security of Electronic Health Information. This revamped...more