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 the past several weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") has announced settlements with three health care organizations — Comstar, LLC ("Comstar"); Guam Memorial...more
Health care organizations are under pressure to shore up their cybersecurity response efforts. Much of this pressure is coming from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which has made...more
In the first five months of 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it had entered into ten Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) resolution...more
Following the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recent publication of four settlements as part of a new Risk Analysis Audit Initiative. We explore the current regulatory language for Risk Analysis, the proposed language for Risk...more
Background - On March 21, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement with Health Fitness Corporation (“Health Fitness”), a company that provides wellness...more
Arecent report put the odds of an asteroid hitting the earth in December 2032 at 3.1%—which is 3,100 times more likely than an organization resolving an enforcement action with the U.S. Department of Health and Human...more
On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $1.5 million civil money penalty (CMP) against Warby Parker, Inc. (WP). WP is a manufacturer and online...more
With 2025 barely three weeks old, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has already announced six enforcement actions for the new year. Particularly significant is the advancement of...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 the healthcare sector continues to be a top target for cyber criminals, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued proposed updates to the HIPAA Security Rule (scheduled to be published in the Federal Register January 6). It...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), which enforces HIPAA, recently announced a new enforcement initiative, the Risk Analysis Initiative, in conjunction with OCR’s seventh...more
On October 2, 2024, New York adopted new regulations requiring general hospitals to implement heightened cybersecurity safeguards. General hospitals, as defined in Article 28 of the NY Public Health Law, generally must begin...more
On October 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) embraced the end of Spooky Season by announcing two more ransomware-related enforcement actions. ...more
On October 23-24, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory hosted the Safeguarding...more
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) Director Melanie Fontes Rainer announced that OCR will resume auditing Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”)...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently settled two ransomware cases with covered entities. These cases signal the government's growing concern with health care...more
The cyber breach at Change Healthcare in 2024 stands out as one of the most significant cyber-attacks in recent memory. Its repercussions extend far beyond immediate industry disruptions, resonating deeply in regulatory...more
Announcing its fourth ransomware cybersecurity investigation and settlement, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also observed there has been a 264% increase in large ransomware breaches since 2018....more
On June 28, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (Loper Bright), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of Chevron deference, upending 40 years of precedent and significantly shifting power to the courts to...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has, as part of its mandate, the responsibility to enforce the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule....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 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced a settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with Green Ridge Behavioral Health, LLC...more
The number of large data breaches, those involving 500 or more people, exposing protected health information has increased exponentially in the last few years, and ransomware and hacking are the primary cyber threats in...more
On February 14, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a new, final version of their guidance for...more
The long-anticipated final rule addressing substance use disorder (SUD) records at 42 C.F.R. Part 2, commonly referred to as Part 2, is here. The final rule is a joint undertaking by the U.S. Department of Health and Human...more