News & Analysis as of

Enforcement Actions Office of Civil Rights HIPAA Violations

Saul Ewing LLP

HHS OCR Continues Active HIPAA Enforcement with Three New Settlements

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In the past several weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") has announced settlements with three health care organizations — Comstar, LLC ("Comstar"); Guam Memorial...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

From $5,000 to $800,000: Days Apart, OCR Security Settlements Show Puzzling Math

A single incident that may have started as a personal vendetta or an extortion threat seven years ago has cost a Florida health care system $800,000, and comes on the heels of an unrelated breach suffered by a different...more

Baker Donelson

Insider Threats Are Just as Dangerous as Ransomware – Lessons from the Latest OCR HIPAA Settlement

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What's New? On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an $800,000 settlement with a large Florida-based health care provider over potential violations of the...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

2025 Enforcement Trends: Risk Analysis Failures at the Center of HHS’s Multimillion-Dollar HIPAA Penalties

In the first five months of 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it had entered into ten Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) resolution...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

Northeast Radiology Settles with OCR

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on April 10, 2025, that it has settled alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations with Northeast Radiology for $350,000....more

Ankura

HIPAA Security Risk Analysis – How should regulated entities prepare for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Risk Analysis Audit...

Ankura on

Following the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recent publication of four settlements as part of a new Risk Analysis Audit Initiative. We explore the current regulatory language for Risk Analysis, the proposed language for Risk...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

OCR Active with Settlements and Enforcement Actions in November and Early December

The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) was busy negotiating and settling enforcement actions in November and early December. Since October 31, 2024, the OCR has settled five separate...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Recognized Security Practices ‘Saved’ Covered Entity $60K of $300K Fine, But Which Ones Remain a Mystery

Covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) may receive a “discount” for having recognized security practices (RSPs) in place when the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) calculates financial penalties for Security...more

Saul Ewing LLP

No “Trick”: Plastic Surgery Practice Agrees to Pay a $500,000 HIPAA Settlement Following Ransomware Attack

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On October 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $500,000 settlement with Plastic Surgery Associates of South Dakota (“PSA”) concerning potential...more

Baker Donelson

The Office for Civil Rights Recently Settled Two Ransomware Related Investigations

Baker Donelson on

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

Saul Ewing LLP

HIPAA Security Rule Settlement Results in $950,000 Payment by a Mid-Atlantic Health System

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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

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

An inside view of HIPAA enforcement

While many healthcare providers are generally aware of their obligations under HIPAA, most do not have a clear sense of what happens if they fail to meet these obligations. At best, most probably are familiar with headlines...more

Lathrop GPM

HIPAA Violations: What Providers Should Learn From the Failures of Others

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The federal agency responsible for enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) – the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – recently submitted...more

Saul Ewing LLP

NYC Hospital Agrees to Pay $4.75 Million as Part of a HIPAA Settlement

Saul Ewing LLP on

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

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

OCR Ends Year With Settlements That Tread Old Ground, Says New Rules Are Coming—Someday

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

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Revised Privacy Rule May Not Emerge for Two Years; Info Blocking Penalty Regulation Published

Report on Patient Privacy Volume 23, no 7 (July 2023) In two public talks this spring, Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), said completing the 2021 proposed regulation extensively...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

MedEvolve OCR Settlement for $350,000 due to Alleged Failures to Protect Data

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

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Report on Patient Privacy Volume 22, Number 11. MD Anderson Won Against OCR, But Agency’s Response—Including on Fines—Keeps...

Report on Patient Privacy Volume 22, Number 11. (November 2022) Nearly five years passed from the time the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that three...more

Ankura

HIPAA Right of Access From a Dental Practice Perspective

Ankura on

The Right of Access Initiative by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began in 2019. On September 20, 2022, the OCR published its latest press release on the matter...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

OCR Announces Trio of Access Cases; Already Stung, One Dental Chain Eliminates All Fees

Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 10 (October, 2022) - How about free? Patients daily face the machinations of getting records from their providers, and health care practices, hospitals and even dentists struggle with...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

Dermatology Practice Settles Alleged HIPAA Violations

Rivkin Radler LLP on

On August 23, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Massachusetts-based New England Dermatology, P.C., d/b/a New England Dermatology and Laser Center (NEDLC), agreed to...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

OCR Settles Improper Disposal Case for $300,640

On August 23, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a press release announcing that it had settled with New England Dermatology, P.C. (NED) for $300,640 “over the improper disposal of protected health information.” ...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

OCR: Current Fines Too Low to Spur Compliance; Agency Also Seeks Funding Boost, Injunctive Relief

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

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

OCR Targets Three Dentists in New Enforcement Actions; Nixes Political Use of PHI, Review Backlash

Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 4 (April, 2022) - By many measures, David Northcutt’s unsuccessful 2018 bid for the Alabama senate was a costly one. Northcutt, a dentist, loaned his campaign $73,000 throughout the...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 30, Number 7. News Briefs: February 2021 #2

Report on Medicare Compliance 30, no. 7 (February 22, 2021) - A Michigan woman is the first in the nation to be charged criminally with misappropriating money from the Provider Relief Fund (PRF), the Department of Justice...more

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