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
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
The saga that led Children’s Hospital Colorado to accept a fine of more than $500,000 imposed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) began on July 11, 2017, when a physician’s email account containing details on 3,300...more
On April 22, 2024, the Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy Final Rule. The final rule limits the sharing of protected health...more
Around the corner is the Dec. 23 deadline to have your organization bring its HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices into compliance with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights Final Rule modifying...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
In addition to holiday celebrations, the month of December typically ushers in a final round of enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), and 2024 is no...more
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Office for Civil Rights issued a final privacy rule to support reproductive health privacy. The rule does not allow the sharing of reproductive health...more
Attestations are at the heart of permissible disclosures under the HHS Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) new reproductive health privacy rule—and OCR wants covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BA) to use them now. The...more
On June 20, 2024, the Northern District of Texas issued its final order in American Hospital Association, et al. v. Becerra, et al. (AHA), granting the plaintiffs’ (the American Hospital Association, two Texas health systems...more
On June 20, 2024, a Texas federal court vacated the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR's) controversial guidance concerning Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates, available here....more
On April 26, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a Final Rule that adds protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule...more
On February 14, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its annual reports to Congress detailing its actions to enforce the privacy, security, and breach notification...more
Earlier this week, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a Final Rule aimed at protecting protected health information (PHI) related to lawfully provided reproductive health care...more
Ideal for professionals with some compliance knowledge and experience, HCCA’s Healthcare Privacy Compliance Academy offers practitioners a deeper understanding of effective compliance management in a healthcare setting. The...more
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and other government agencies aren’t just worried that providers understand—and mitigate—the privacy and security risks of telehealth. In fact, in 2022, the Government Accountability...more
On October 18, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued an update1 containing two resource documents to help educate patients regarding privacy and security...more
Designed for professionals with some compliance knowledge and experience, HCCA’s Healthcare Privacy Compliance Academy is ideal for practitioners who want a deeper understanding of effective compliance management in a...more
Over the past year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has emerged as a leading actor in the health privacy enforcement space, spearheading enforcement actions, policy statements, and regulatory changes all aimed at...more
Privacy Briefs: June 2023 - Long-term care pharmacy network PharMerica disclosed a breach involving more than 5.8 million patients, making it the largest breach reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the last...more
Washington greatly expanded the protection for consumers’ identifiable health information by enacting the “My Health My Data Act” (MHMDA), in an effort to close the gap between HIPAA protections and the laws protecting the...more
On February 27, 2023 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), announced the formation of three new divisions within the office: Enforcement Division, Policy Division,...more
A patient surfs a hospital system’s website and reads an article about depression and anxiety. The patient then searches the hospital’s website for mental health providers in the area. A few hours later, the patient logs into...more
Social media’s interplay with healthcare privacy presents a constantly evolving challenge. ICYMI (“in case you missed it”), there is an uptick in enforcement and scrutiny IRL (“in real life”) related to communications through...more
What We’re Watching in 2023 - Happy New Year from the BR Data Privacy and Security Download! 2022 was a busy year for data privacy and security. State and federal regulatory agencies flexed their enforcement muscle, we...more