California Employment News: How to Comply With and Use Employee Record Requests to Your Advantage
Start with a records request. Add a seven months’ wait. Stir in the chaos of the pandemic, with most employees working from home. Blend in a perhaps-neglected post office box. Bake for two-and-a-half years....more
In June 2022, the HHS Office for Civil Rights issued new HIPAA Privacy Rule Guidance in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization and state legislation which followed the decision...more
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its Right of Access Initiative, promising to prioritize patients’ rights to receive timely copies of their medical...more
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced three more resolution agreements settling alleged violations of the HIPAA right of access. These agreements bring...more
In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has announced 12 resolution agreements settling alleged violations of the HIPAA rules. Covered entities and business...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced on July 15, 2022, that it has resolved 11 investigations conducted under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Making quite the statement on July 15, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced in a press release that it had recently settled an additional 11 cases under its Right to Access Initiative. These settlements bring the...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has released information on its latest Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement actions. The government continues to pursue investigations and administrative...more
Last week, Diabetes, Endocrinology & Lipidology Center Inc. (DELC) of West Virginia reached a $5,000 settlement with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over allegations that it failed to provide timely access to a patient’s...more
From January 2021 through April 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced six settlement agreements to resolve allegations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability...more
Continuing its serious march against covered entities not allowing patients access to their records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has settled two more cases in two days in its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the...more
On March 24th and March 26th, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it settled its respective seventeenth and eighteenth enforcement actions as part of...more
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently settled two additional enforcement actions as part of its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which is a program implemented by...more
A March 11 article in the Health Care Compliance Association’s Report on Patient Privacy, “In Wake of 16th OCR Settlement, Time For CEs, BAs to Take Right of Access Seriously,” discussed the Right of Access Initiative that...more
Elizabeth Barry Heddleston Associate Now is a great time for healthcare providers to assess their compliance with HIPAA’s right of access requirements. Not only is this a hot area of enforcement, patients’ rights to access...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced another settlement involving investigations under its Right of Access Initiative. This settlement, the sixteenth such agreement under the Initiative (and one of the most...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced a flurry of enforcement actions in the last quarter of 2020 as part of its Right of Access Initiative....more
Thanks to a federal judge, the Office for Civil Rights has modified its rules for sending records to third parties. Covered entities are no longer required by HIPAA to send non-electronic protected health information (“PHI”)...more
The Florida Senate and House of Representatives are considering two bills (SB 1670 and HB 963) that, if adopted, will amend Florida law to create the state’s first comprehensive privacy law (though they do not go nearly as...more
Access to healthcare information (or lack thereof) has always been touted as one of the key factors/necessities to realizing the promise of technology in the delivery of healthcare. Despite various legislative, judicial,...more
Most health care providers are aware that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and its accompanying negotiations provide for the privacy and security of patients’ health care...more