Health Tech Podcast - Episode 3: HIPAA, HITECH and TCPA
The Biggest Changes in HIPAA/HITECH Omnibus Rule & Recommended Action Steps—Ted Kobus
On Feb. 16, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published its 2022 Annual Report to Congress. ...more
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
The HHS Office for Civil Rights released, at the end of last year, findings from audits it conducted in 2016 and 2017 of 166 covered entities and 41 business associates. The report represents the periodic audit that the...more
According to a December 20, 2019 Report by HIPAA Journal, nearly 39 million health care data breaches had been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”), Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) by the end...more
The Situation: On May 24, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") issued a new fact sheet clarifying business associates' direct liability for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and...more
The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it is lowering the maximum amount it will assess for most types of HIPAA violations. Although the change is couched as an exercise of discretion, HHS states that...more
According to a February 12, 2019 Press Release from Protenus, a developer of analytics for patient privacy monitoring and compliance, 15,085,302 patient records were breached in 2018 – a startling number made even more...more
Last week, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (“Division”) announced that a physician group affiliated with more than 50 South Jersey medical and surgical practices...more
Breaches happen. They happen to major health systems, and they happen to solo practitioners. They happen to health plans, and they happen to health information technology vendors. In our technology-reliant world, it would be...more
Secretary Tom Price of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced his agency needs “to focus more on the most recent breaches and clarify when entities have taken action to resolve the issues that might...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a new guidance regarding HIPAA compliance and the use of cloud computing solutions. The guidance is intended to assist covered entities...more
What covered entities and business associates can do to prepare for the next round of audits. On July 11, the HIPAA Phase 2 audits commenced when 167 covered entities received notice of a desk audit from the Department...more
A number of new developments have taken place related to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security compliance, and enforcement is increasing. Healthcare providers, health plans and other...more
From the rise in ransomware attacks to inadvertent disclosure of information by subcontractors, the health services industry is reminded that a potential consequence of a data breach is the threat of a regulatory enforcement...more
Cybersecurity Impacts on HIPAA Security Compliance and the New Audit Initiative - New Audit Initiative Items to Watch - While The HHS Office for Civil Rights recently announced its intent to perform a second...more
On March 21, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the launch of its Phase 2 HIPAA compliance audits pursuant to which it will audit covered entities and...more
Five suggested steps healthcare organizations and their contractors should take to prepare. On March 21, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services launched Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit...more
Pursuant to HIPAA/HITECH, covered entities are required to report breaches of unsecured protected health information that occurred in 2015 and affected less than 500 individuals to the Office for Civil Rights no later than 60...more
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) have recently selected a vendor to conduct the second wave of HIPAA audits. These so-called "Phase 2 Audits" are set to commence...more
We have released the inaugural BakerHostetler Data Security Incident Response Report, which provides insights generated from the review of more than 200 incidents that our attorneys advised on in 2014. The report confirms the...more
We welcome this guest blog by Gene Fry, Compliance Officer, Scrypt, Inc. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. This means that any...more
As of early December 2014, 1,170 security breaches under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) involving 31 million records had been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will soon begin a second phase of audits (Phase 2 Audits) of compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)...more
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and subsequent regulations have changed several aspects of compliance with HIPAA, including the way covered entities should think about...more
As the countdown to the compliance deadline for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act Omnibus Rule begins, we offer the following as a reminder of tasks that covered entities,...more