It’s not immediately obvious why someone would want to disclose a health care test result as part of a job application. But one such request spurred a Pennsylvania entity to provide a lot more than that: it sent her whole...more
Last week, HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with a Pennsylvania provider (the Provider) concerning an alleged violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Specifically, the Provider impermissibly disclosed a...more
On November 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $90,000 settlement with Bryan County Ambulance Authority (“BCAA”), a provider of emergency medical...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently settled two ransomware cases with covered entities. These cases signal the government's growing concern with health care...more
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
On July 1, 2024, the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Pennsylvania-based healthcare system, Heritage Valley Health System (Heritage Valley), has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle potential violations of the...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
On February 6, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $4.75 million settlement with Montefiore Medical Center (MMC) for a breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI). The...more
The Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) are among a handful of groups “urging the Biden administration to rescind a policy proposal that would threaten the American...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
In late October, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached a settlement agreement with a medical management company based in Massachusetts over alleged HIPAA violations. Under the settlement terms, the...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
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
A recent settlement entered into by the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan serves as a stark warning to all entities and business associates subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act:...more
On September 11, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with LA Care related to potential violations of Health Insurance Portability and...more
On May 16, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement of potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act...more
Last month, CMS issued three civil monetary penalty (CMP) notices for violations of the hospital price transparency regulations (HPT Rule), which requires hospitals to make public the standard charges of the items and...more
On June 28, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement (resolution agreement and corrective action plan) with iHealth Solutions (also known as Advantum Health)...more
On April 26, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a fact sheet on Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement Updates (the “Fact Sheet”) under the Hospital Price Transparency Rule (the “Rule”)....more
Unhappy consumers, including patients, are free to express dissatisfaction with services they receive from providers on popular social media or online review platforms, such as Yelp and Google. At least in the healthcare...more
We have written several times about U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights’ “HIPAA Right of Access Initiative.” In its most recent enforcement action under the Initiative, the 44th such...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently submitted two annual reports to Congress setting forth a summary of complaints and breaches reported to the OCR during...more
On February 2, 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reached a settlement with Banner Health Affiliated Covered Entities (“Banner Health”) for a 2016 data breach that...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on February 2 that Banner Health, a not-for-profit hospital system based in Arizona, has paid $1.25 million in order to settle alleged...more