ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
Web-based Tracking Technology and AI: HIPAA Compliance Issues for Health Care Practices
Hybrid Workforces and Compliance with Sheila Limmroth
HIPPA: Privacy & Security and Potential Rule Changes
On June 20, 2024, a U.S. federal district court held, in a suit brought by Jones Day, that the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") had misapplied the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA")...more
To protect patients seeking addiction treatment, the federal government passed strict regulations limiting the disclosure of substance abuse patient records. Substance abuse treatment programs must not only comply with the...more
As discussed in our prior health law update, New Limits on Minor Consents in Idaho, effective July 1, 2024, parents generally will have the right to access the medical records of their unemancipated minor children subject to...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
Last week, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a long-awaited final reg that aims to better align 42 CFR Part 2. This...more
On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule (Final Rule) updating federal “Part 2” regulations to more closely align the requirements applicable to substance use disorder...more
The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets forth provisions related to the waiver or alteration of authorization in relation to clinical research studies for circumstances in which it would be impractical or impossible to obtain...more
The start of 2023 has brought with it significant changes to data privacy – new state laws concerning data privacy came into effect January 1 (the California Privacy Rights Act and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act),...more
Amid the ongoing proliferation of headlines about the mental health crisis in the United States, of which substance use disorder is a large part, the recent issuance by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...more
For years, federal privacy laws relating to substance abuse disorder (SUD) treatment records have differed in significant ways from federal privacy laws relating to other medical records. Changes, however, are afoot. Almost...more
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its Right of Access Initiative, promising to prioritize patients’ rights to receive timely copies of their medical...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced on July 15, 2022, that it has resolved 11 investigations conducted under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) yesterday issued guidance addressing how the Health...more
When use or disclosure of an individual’s health information or medical records is at issue, the assumption seems to be, much more often than not, that the HIPAA privacy and security rules apply. This has certainly been the...more
OCR Cracks Down on Healthcare Providers in Right to Access Initiative - “For too long, healthcare providers have slow-walked their duty to provide patients their medical records out of a sleepy bureaucratic inertia. We...more
With limited exceptions, HIPAA generally gives individuals the right to access or obtain copies of their protected health information ("PHI") from covered entities. (45 CFR § 164.524(a)). But the right of access does not...more
Report on Patient Privacy 21, no. 2 (February 2021) - Unless an extension is granted or the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) is withdrawn, covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) have until late March to...more
Elizabeth Barry Heddleston Associate Now is a great time for healthcare providers to assess their compliance with HIPAA’s right of access requirements. Not only is this a hot area of enforcement, patients’ rights to access...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 30, no. 2 (January 18, 2021) - Recovery audit contractors (RACs) may soon be auditing positron emission tomography (PET) for initial treatment strategy in oncologic conditions for compliance...more
On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced proposed revisions to the HIPAA Privacy Rule that would significantly impact the day-to-day operations of HIPAA covered entities. In this...more
Prior to the holiday, the OCR settled its thirteenth enforcement action under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which involved a primary care physician practicing in the State of Georgia. Dr. Peter Wrobel, M.D., P.C.,...more
On December 15, 2020, in Menorah Park v. Rolston, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to overturn Biddle v. Warren Gen. Hosp., 86 Ohio St.3d 395 (1999). As a result of this decision, providers will remain subject to liability...more
Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, individuals have a right to timely access their medical records at a reasonable cost. With some exceptions, a health care provider must provide those records without reasonable delay and within...more
Recent enforcement actions by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) underscore the importance of providing patients with copies of their protected health information (PHI) as required by HIPAA. Failure to provide access exposes...more
On April 14 and 15, 2020, Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Amy Acton issued two new orders mandating certain disclosures of COVID-19 case information. ...more