Health Tech Podcast - Episode 3: HIPAA, HITECH and TCPA
The Biggest Changes in HIPAA/HITECH Omnibus Rule & Recommended Action Steps—Ted Kobus
As U.S. states continue to pass data privacy legislation, Maryland has gone above and beyond in signing both the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024 (MODPA) and the Maryland Age Appropriate Design Code (HB 603/SB...more
On February 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published a notice in the Federal Register regarding reinstatement of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”)...more
Last year, Congress enacted an amendment to the HITECH Act in January 2021 (“HITECH Amendment”) to require that the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) consider whether a covered entity or business associate has...more
Millions of women use reproductive health applications (or “apps”) to track menstrual cycles, ovulation, and pregnancy. These apps provide women that use the rhythm method for birth control and women seeking to become...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
Enforcement Actions - In its first announcement of enforcement actions in 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) simultaneously announced the resolution of three...more
Earlier this month, HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking comments on a statutory provision adopted last year that provides a quasi-safe harbor for entities that have voluntarily...more
Covered entities and business associates subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) have the chance to provide input on two amendments to the Health Information Technology for...more
An amendment to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was signed into law on Jan. 5, 2021, directing U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider "recognized security practices"...more
On January 28, 2020, the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) addressed a federal court’s January 23rd invalidation of certain provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Thanks to a federal judge, the Office for Civil Rights has modified its rules for sending records to third parties. Covered entities are no longer required by HIPAA to send non-electronic protected health information (“PHI”)...more
New guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reaffirms that business associates must have proper HIPAA compliance practices, safeguards and documentation in place...more
The HITECH Act extended certain HIPAA obligations to business associates, including those entities that create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information (“PHI”) on behalf of covered entities. Business...more
Imagine a breach in the privacy of protected health information. The violation of an individual’s HIPAA rights may be clear, but the individual cannot sue under HIPAA. Courts have consistently held that HIPAA provides no...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
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
On June 30, 2016, the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the first-ever settlement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) claims against a business associate. According...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) must improve its oversight and enforcement of patient information privacy and security rules by “covered entities” and their business associates under the Health Information Portability...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
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
The long awaited HIPAA/HITECH Final Rule became effective March 26, 2013, but covered entities, business associates and subcontractors will have until September 23, 2013, to fully comply. ...more
If you are a health care provider and/or someone who routinely performs work involving patient health information on behalf of a health care provider, you likely need to know about the HIPAA/HITECH Final Rule....more
In This Issue: - A Baker's Dozen of Significant Changes From the HIPAA/HITECH Rule 1. Business Associates and Subcontractors 2. Breach Notification 3. Covered Entity Organizational Structures 4. Cloud...more