New Developments in Health Information Policy
New HIPAA Final Rule: Key Changes to Reproductive Health Care Privacy - Thought Leaders in Health Law®
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
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
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
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
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
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Privacy 21, no. 2 (February 2021) - Unless an extension is granted or the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) is withdrawn, covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) have until late March to...more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
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
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
In an era of decreasing reimbursement and rapidly expanding opportunities associated with “big data”, healthcare entities may be looking for ways to monetize protected health information (“PHI”) for their own, non-patient...more
Compliance Today (February 2020) - On December 19, the U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the release of the “updated joint guidance...more
This two-day Regional Compliance and Ethics Conferences provide attendees with a forum to interact with local compliance professionals, share information about your compliance successes and challenges, and create educational...more
On January 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a notice (the OCR Notice) regarding individuals’ right of access to health records in response to a January 23, 2020...more
The HIPAA privacy rules give special protection to “psychotherapy notes,” but providers often misunderstand what are and are not covered and how they differ from other mental health records. I. “Psychotherapy Notes”...more
With all of the attention on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements to safeguard the privacy and security of a patient’s health information, covered entities sometimes overlook the HIPAA...more
Bayfront Health – St. Petersburg (Bayfront) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entered into a $85,000 no-fault settlement agreement and one year corrective action...more
In the second episode of our series on the national opioid crisis, Gina Bertolini discusses the overlay of recent guidance concerning privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and...more