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
Each week as the new presidential administration takes shape, we get a clearer picture of how its priorities will affect federal agencies, and how those changes will affect the employers and educational institutions that...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: With the myriad claims for religious accommodation that came out of mandatory COVID vaccination policies, employers have become familiar how to handle requests for religious accommodation in the workplace. ...more
In the past week, two U.S. District Court judges have issued preliminary injunctions halting implementation of the recently-released 2024 Title IX final rule....more
Late last week the Connecticut State Department of Education (“CSDE” or “Department”) issued new guidance addressing the rights of transgender students in Connecticut schools. Entitled Guidance on Civil Rights Protections...more
On November 20, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a Report and Order (Order) and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) adopting rules to establish a framework for preventing...more
In a July 28, 2023 ruling, the Seventh Circuit has signaled that Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) seeking to enforce pronoun policies can expect to face increased scrutiny. Specifically, the Seventh Circuit vacated its...more
On July 24, 2023, less than a month after the Supreme Court's landmark decision striking down affirmative action practices in college admissions, the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched an...more
In its decision holding the use of race in university and college admissions is unconstitutional in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court noted that “[e]liminating racial...more
In response to COVID-19 vaccination mandates and employer-mandated vaccination policies, federal agencies continue to issue guidance. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Health and Human...more
In an apparent reversal of a Memorandum issued late in the term of the prior administration, the U.S. Department of Education has issued an interpretation of Title IX, emphasizing that the law prohibits discrimination based...more
On Wednesday, June 16, the United States Department of Education issued a Notice of Interpretation (“Interpretation”) “to make clear that the Department interprets Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination to encompass...more
It will fully enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance from...more
As discussed in a prior post, OCR under the former President went to great lengths to interpret Bostock v. Clayton (which established that discrimination against someone for being transgender or homosexual was sex...more
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the "Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The Executive Order explicitly extends the holding of...more
At the beginning of last week, Donald Trump was President of the United States and we were being flooded with last minute Title IX and civil rights guidance from the outgoing Department of Education. As we near the end of the...more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a statement yesterday reminding schools, colleges, and universities of their responsibilities to address discrimination and harassment based on race and...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
It goes without saying that federally funded educational institutions cannot discriminate on the basis of gender. Some federal courts believe Title IX is the proper statute upon which to base employment discrimination claims,...more
Here's what employers need to know. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Office of Civil Rights announced that they would be enhancing the legal protections for healthcare workers with...more
Timely Topics - The final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on May...more
On March 21, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), announced the launch of the 2016 Phase 2 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Audit...more
The front page of last Sunday’s New York Times ‘Styles’ section was almost entirely devoted to an article called “The Symbols of Change,” recounting how many public venues are converting from the traditional male/female...more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin), Title IX of the Civil...more
Unlike people, not all schools are created equal. Anyone who doubts that need only review the results of the Civil Rights Data Collection [“CRDC”] for the 2011-2012 school year, which were released on March 21, 2014 by...more
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a Dear Colleague Letter and related questions and answers about the use of race in admissions following...more