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
Applicable Provider Types: All - Is Your Entity in Compliance? Recent regulatory language makes clear that most healthcare providers must provide free translators or interpreters for patients with limited English...more
Melanie Fontes Rainer recently marked the completion of her second year leading the Office for Civil Rights at HHS. In this podcast she shared some of the accomplishments over this time as well as what the health care...more
The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010, contained a provision (commonly referred to as Section 1557) prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in...more
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, or any combination thereof, in a health program or activity, any part of which is...more
On May 6, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published the long-awaited Nondiscrimination in Health Programs...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Following years of back and forth, new final rules were published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on May 6, 2024 reinstituting the Department’s interpretation that the prohibition on...more
On May 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published their final rule on nondiscrimination in the Federal Register...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule on April 26, 2024 (the “Final Rule”) under Section 1557 of...more
On May 24, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its first Language Access Annual Progress Report (the Report) reflecting on its advancements since the 2022 HHS Equity Action Plan (Equity Plan)...more
The U.S. government entered into two recent settlements with healthcare providers who allegedly denied deaf and hearing-impaired patients or their caregivers auxiliary aids for effective communication. These settlements...more
Last month, in Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, P.L.L.C., the Supreme Court denied a petitioner’s right to emotional distress damages in a private action brought under federal anti-discrimination laws. The Petitioner, a...more
On January 5, 2022, we discussed the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2023 proposed rule released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). On April 28, 2022, CMS issued the NBPP 2023 Final Rule. CMS...more
Summary - Federal agencies will enforce Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The announcement reverses an effort under the previous...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Consistent with Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently published recommendations for...more
Compliance Today (June 2020) - On March 28, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a bulletin reminding healthcare organizations of their obligations under the...more
On August 12, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS OCR”) announced that it has entered into a Voluntary Resolution Agreement with Michigan State University pursuant to Section...more
Developments continue under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Act’s nondiscrimination provision. For example, the first federal appellate court in the nation (the Sixth Circuit) has recently interpreted the...more
On May 24, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced its proposed changes to the regulations issued under Section 1557 of the Affordable Act Care (“ACA”). Section 1557 is the primary...more
As discussed in a previous alert, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued a proposed rule amending provisions of its 2016 rule prohibiting certain forms of...more
In 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights issued final regulations implementing the nondiscrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”), which prohibit the...more
On May 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights issued a proposed rule reversing certain provisions of its 2016 rule prohibiting certain forms of discrimination under Section 1557 of the...more
In a class-action lawsuit, the Northern District of Illinois has deepened a pre-existing district-court split on a key legal question under Section 1557 of the ACA and, in doing so, explicitly rejected a pivotal HHS OCR...more
There has been confusion as to whether the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination provision (“ACA”) affects a covered entity’s notice of privacy practices (“NPP”) or data breach notifications. OCR has issued guidance...more
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR), the office tasked with enforcing Section 1557 of the ACA, has a new Director and Deputy Director for Civil Rights. The new Director, Roger...more
Although bathroom use seems to be at the forefront with the media in regards to transgender issues; there are several other issues to consider, and the final rule on health plan nondiscrimination is no exception. Transgender...more