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
Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 4 (April, 2022) - By many measures, David Northcutt’s unsuccessful 2018 bid for the Alabama senate was a costly one. Northcutt, a dentist, loaned his campaign $73,000 throughout the...more
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic visited on America in the past several months has quickly reinvigorated the foundational and important debate concerning where, in a free society, individual autonomy ends (or should end) and...more
Health care organizations’ lack of compliance with the data privacy and security requirements of both state laws and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a Request for Information (RFI) regarding how the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules could be modified to reduce regulatory burdens and to...more
On December 2, 2016, the FCC’s Broadband Privacy Report and Order (“Order”) was published in the Federal Register, triggering the 30-day deadline for petitions for reconsideration, and the effective dates for certain new...more
As ISPs continue to absorb the scope of the FCC’s recent Privacy Order (the “Order”), one immediate question presents itself: what steps must ISPs take to begin implementing the data security and breach notification...more
As we previewed last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new privacy rules that govern Internet service providers’ (ISPs) handling of broadband customer information. Though the Wireline Competition...more
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) is on the verge of proposing new federal privacy regulations for internet broadband service providers (“ISPs”). ISPs were previously policed by the Federal Trade Commission...more
In September 2015, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), report found that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the agency charged with ensuring compliance with the Health...more
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) have recently selected a vendor to conduct the second wave of HIPAA audits. These so-called “Phase 2 Audits” are set to commence...more
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) have recently selected a vendor to conduct the second wave of HIPAA audits. These so-called "Phase 2 Audits" are set to commence...more
Later this year, the Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) is expected to launch its permanent HIPAA Audit Program. The HIPAA Audit Program is authorized under Section 13411 of the HITECH Act, and is designed to...more