HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer on Progress and News at OCR
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
Podcast - Data Privacy and Tracking Technology Compliance
Patient Data and Privacy
2022 DSIR Deeper Dive: OCR’s Right of Access Initiative
HIPAA Tips With Williams Mullen - Telehealth After the Pandemic
Relaxed HIPAA Restrictions For Providers Using Telehealth
Webinar: Investigating and Resolving Sexual Assaults on Campus
In October, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) fined Providence Medical Institute (PMI) $240,000, an amount that reflected a 20% discount for having “recognized security practices” (RSPs) in place. But many more covered...more
On December 17, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP) published the Health Data,...more
In December 2024, the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ASTP/ONC”) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published two...more
On August 29, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) withdrew its appeal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s (Court) June 20, 2024 decision in...more
On February 8, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) jointly issued a final rule to amend the...more
On March 18, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated the guidance first issued in December 2022 regarding the use of online tracking technologies in the...more
A final rule published on July 3, 2023, empowers the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to impose civil monetary penalties (CMP) of up to $1 million for unlawful acts of...more
On Thursday, July 20, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and HHS Office for Civil Rights issued a rare joint press release announcing that approximately 130 hospital systems and telehealth providers received a letter alerting...more
Eye on Health Information Exchange, Data Privacy and Alignment of Federal Standards – Information Blocking, HIPAA Updates and Part 2 Flexibility As we struggle to emerge from the effects of the pandemic, several key federal...more
The primary educational and networking event for healthcare compliance professionals - As our flagship healthcare compliance conference, HCCA’s Compliance Institute (CI) has been providing educational resources and...more
Continuing its serious march against covered entities not allowing patients access to their records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has settled two more cases in two days in its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the...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
The Compliance Institute is celebrating 25 years! Join us for the Compliance Institute's 25th anniversary, April 19-22, 2021. This year, HCCA is excited to celebrate over two decades of compliance excellence with our...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released an audit report on HIPAA compliance by 166 covered entities and 41 business associates during 2016-2017. The audits included...more
Nearly 20 years to the day after the first HIPAA privacy regulations were announced, HHS has posted proposed revisions to HIPAA, evidence that even after twenty years, HIPAA privacy remains a work in progress. These proposed...more
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting need for patient access to remote healthcare, as well as the development of contact-tracing apps, have spotlighted the importance of health-focused mobile applications (mHealth apps)....more
A tricky issue for mobile health app developers since the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released its first “Health App Use Scenarios & HIPAA” guidance back in 2016 has been deciphering whether the developer is a business...more
Editors’ Note: This is the fourth in our fourth-annual end-of-year series examining important trends in data privacy and cybersecurity in the coming year. Our previous entry discussed the CCPA, energy, and Brexit. Up next:...more
Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 28, Number 40. (November 11, 2019) - - In a new Medicare compliance review, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) said Angels Care Home Health in Salina, Kansas, didn’t comply with...more
Report on Patient Privacy Volume 19, Number 11. (November 2019) ? The biggest threat to protected health information comes from carelessness within your organization, according to a brief from the Clearwater...more
Access to healthcare information (or lack thereof) has always been touted as one of the key factors/necessities to realizing the promise of technology in the delivery of healthcare. Despite various legislative, judicial,...more
In the top three of the list of highly sensitive personal data to be concerned about is our medical information. It’s so sensitive because it is so personal. It used to be that our medical information was located in paper...more
On April 18, 2019, the Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued five new FAQs addressing the applicability of HIPAA to the use of software applications (apps) by individuals to receive health...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that 2018 was a significant year in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement activity. ...more
On June 18, 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that an HHS Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) granted summary judgment to OCR in an enforcement action...more