On October 2, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued new cybersecurity regulations (Regulations) for all general hospitals in New York state (“hospitals”), creating a new Section 405.46 in Title 10 (Health)...more
In addition to holiday celebrations, the month of December typically ushers in a final round of enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), and 2024 is no...more
New York hospitals have less than a year to dust off their Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance programs and update them to comply with more stringent and detailed state regulations. Last...more
Americans hear about cybersecurity incidents on a frequent basis. As the adage goes, it is not a matter of “if” a breach or security hack occurs; it is a matter of “when.”...more
More than two months after the February 2024 Change Healthcare cyber-ransom attack, the healthcare industry continues to grapple with the fallout, creating significant challenges, disruptions, and outages to the healthcare...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently published an executive summary (Report) outlining key enforcement activities of the Health Insurance Portability and...more
California has a long history of protecting privacy rights. Article I, Section 1, of the California Constitution expressly provides a right of privacy. Recently, the focus has been on compliance with the California Consumer...more
Nearly two months after settlement was reached, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) announced on Feb. 6 that it obtained a resolution agreement with Montefiore Medical Center over...more
While hospitals remain focused on restoring health to their patients, they must not let their defenses down when it comes to robust cybersecurity practice that safeguards their patients' information....more
It is a health care provider’s nightmare – despite extensive HIPAA training and best efforts to hire the right people, one of your staff members has gone rogue with a patient’s information. Whether a receptionist loudly...more
Privacy and cybersecurity is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days and, in 2018, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) settled ten cases and prevailed in another before an Administrative Law Judge to the tune of...more
As a result of ongoing efforts under the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has partnered with public and private sector entities to develop guidance for healthcare entities seeking...more
North Carolina joined Attorneys General from a dozen states in suing Indiana based Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE) and affiliates. The complaint alleges that the companies failed to undertake reasonable measures to...more
More than three years ago, Anthem, Inc. reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that it suffered a cyber attack compromising the protected health information of nearly 79...more
In its monthly Cybersecurity Newsletter at the end of May, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services pointedly reminds us of the need to be conscious of some fundamental...more
The May 2018 cyber security newsletter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) focused on a topic often overlooked by covered entities and their business associates: physical...more
On this blog, we have discussed the criticality of risk analyses – the assessment required by the Security Rule of the “risks and vulnerabilities” that an organization faces with respect to all of its electronic protected...more
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) provided guidance for HIPAA covered entities and business associates that use or want to use cloud computing services involving protected...more
Covered entities and business associates are required to identify and report breaches of unsecured protected health information (“PHI”) and security incidents. “Breach” is defined as the acquisition, access, use, or...more
In September, 2015, OCR and HHS issued a press release announcing a Resolution Agreement with the Cancer Care Group, P.C., which included entry into the agreement, the adoption of a robust compliance plan, and the payment of...more
On September 2, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a substantial settlement with an Indiana-based oncology group, Cancer Care Group, P.C. (CCG). Under the terms of...more
The Civil Rights Office of the Department of Health and Human Services announced a “Phase 2” audit program in the Fall of 2014. That audit program was delayed due to funding issues, but appears to be back on schedule for...more
By some estimates, cybercrime costs the global economy $445 billion annually. If cybercrime were a single country, this dollar amount would place it within the world’s top 30 countries in terms of gross domestic product, and...more
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Staff Report titled "Internet of Things: Privacy & Security in a Connected World," released in January 2015, continues to generate interest and questions about the regulation of health...more
As we look into our crystal balls, we do not expect a lot of new issues in 2015. Rather, we believe that most of the significant issues will be a continuation of issues that arose in 2014 or earlier. ...more