Mobile App Series: Privacy by Design
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently unveiled a new website with updated guidance and resources for mobile health app developers regarding the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and...more
A tricky issue for mobile health app developers since the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released its first “Health App Use Scenarios & HIPAA” guidance back in 2016 has been deciphering whether the developer is a business...more
The federal Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, which enforces HIPAA, maintains a website with very helpful "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) regarding the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule....more
Consumers are increasingly turning to health apps for a variety of medical and wellness-related purposes. This has in turn caused greater amounts of data—including highly sensitive information—to flow through these apps....more
New York has made a mark on the regulatory and enforcement landscape for mobile health applications ("mobile health app") with the New York Attorney General's ("NY AG") March 23, 2017, announcement of settlements with three...more
How federal privacy laws apply to mobile health applications has been an area of significant ambiguity. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in conjunction with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the HHS Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and the Food and Drug Administration, have developed a new...more
As regulators seek to define their authority and the scope of their enforcement power, more health apps will continue to flood the marketplace and transform how patients are treated. As mobile health applications...more
Amidst criticism that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) lags behind technological innovation, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) released new guidance to aid app developers in determining how...more
While attending the International Association of Privacy Professionals annual global event, and listening to Chairwoman Edith Ramirez discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) concerns about consumer privacy, the FTC, the...more
OCR’s Compliance Guidance for Health Care App Developers - The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently provided guidance (in the form of six “real-life” scenarios) to help...more
Predicting whether the activities of a mobile health application developer trigger legal obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) presents some new challenges – not surprising...more
OCR’s guidance presents hypothetical scenarios and key questions to help app developers determine when they are subject to HIPAA regulations. On February 11, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil...more
This Halloween, the scariest monsters might not be in your closet or under your bed. They may be overseas, orchestrating intrusions into your electronic medical record. Or they may be lurking in your own workforce, carrying...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has released a new platform to provide mobile health developers (and any other interested stakeholders) a sounding board to ask questions, voice concerns, and “spitball” ideas about HIPAA...more