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
PIH Health, a health care entity located in California, suffered a data breach in June 2019 when 45 employee email accounts were compromised in a targeted phishing campaign. The accounts contained the protected health...more
Welcome to our fourth issue of 2025 of The Health Record -- our healthcare law insights e-newsletter. In this edition, we look at prior authorization transparency and physician decision-making; the impact of Medicaid cuts...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has renewed its focus on two critical areas of HIPAA compliance: risk analysis and individual right of access. These enforcement...more
Starting April 3, Ohio hospitals will have to navigate new requirements under House Bill 173. This law mandates greater transparency in healthcare pricing. It also includes rules for selling or targeted advertising related to...more
Nearly six years to the day that Warby Parker reported a breach affecting nearly 200,000 individuals, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) imposed a $1.5 million fine on the eyewear giant. Investigated by OCR under the Biden...more
On March 7, 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it would begin investigating four medical schools and hospitals pursuant to President Donald Trump’s...more
“Almost every stage of modern healthcare relies on stable and secure computer and network technologies.” The above is a direct quote from the Office of Civil Rights for Health & Human Services (“OCR”) in its proposed...more
On May 6, 2024, OCR published the final rule interpreting and implementing Section 1557 at 45 C.F.R. § 92 (the Final Rule). The Final Rule regulates the use of patient care decision support tools, including AI algorithms for...more
In early January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The Proposed Rule would modify the Security Standards for the Protection of...more
Recent federal enforcement actions have brought home the lesson that there’s really no acceptable reason for denying a patient timely access to medical records. Last year, for example, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR)...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) appears to have made cybersecurity its New Year’s resolution. The first few weeks of 2025 have already brought with them proposed amendments to...more
As Cyberattacks targeting the health care sector have continued to intensify over the past year, including ransomware attacks that have resulted in major data breaches impacting health care organizations, the protection of...more
Fiduciaries should be aware of recent developments involving AI, including emerging and recent state law changes, increased state and federal government interest in regulating AI, and the role of AI in ERISA litigation. While...more
On January 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to amend the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act...more
§ 160.101 Statutory basis and purpose. The requirements of this subchapter implement sections 1171–1180 of the Social Security Act (the Act), sections 262 and 264 of Public Law 104–191, section 105 of Public Law 110–233,...more
On January 6, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published significant proposed amendments (proposed rule) to the Security Rule under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations are on the rise, with the number of affected individuals nearly tripling between 2022 and 2024, according to data compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) delivered a late-December surprise: a draft overhaul of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996’s (HIPAA) Security Rule....more
‘Tis the season for holiday baking and the elves at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), have been diligently crafting their own holiday treat. On December 27,...more
2024 was a record year for cyberattacks in the healthcare sector. According to the Breach Portal maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), to date this year, there...more
We just want to provide a friendly reminder that, before key staff depart for the holidays, HIPAA covered entities and business associates should finalize their compliance with the 2024 HIPAA amendments related to...more
It’s not immediately obvious why someone would want to disclose a health care test result as part of a job application. But one such request spurred a Pennsylvania entity to provide a lot more than that: it sent her whole...more
On December 5, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter reiterating obligations that covered entities have under the May 2024 final rule related...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is required by law to perform periodic audits of covered entities and business associates to ensure their compliance with HIPAA Security Rule...more
On December 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) announced a settlement with Holy Redeemer Family Medicine, a Pennsylvania covered entity, regarding an alleged violation...more