The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on December 3 that it imposed a $1.19 million penalty on Gulf Coast Pain Consultants, a pain management practice in Florida, following...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
Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (MIE) and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OCR) entered into a $100,000 settlement and two-year...more
On May 6, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an agreement with Touchstone Medical Imaging, LLC (Touchstone)...more
Proposed Modifications to HIPAA Regulations under Consideration - On December 14, 2018, HHS issued its Request for Information on Modifying HIPAA Rules to Improve Coordinated Care as part of its Regulatory Sprint to...more
The virtual world offers opportunities and obligations not found in nature. For a couple of years, my wife has followed the adventures of a bonded eagle couple, Liberty and Freedom, residing in the hills near Hanover,...more
According to a recent U.S. Government Interagency report, ransomware is the fastest growing malware threat, targeting users of all types. An incredible 51 percent of respondents in a January 2017 study by the Ponemon...more
On April 12, 2017, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement and corrective action plan with a Colorado federally-qualified health center, Metro Community Provider Network (“MCPN”), after a 2012 breach of...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced a $750,000 fine and resolution agreement, including a Corrective Action Plan (CAP), for Cancer Care Group, P.C. (CCG), a...more
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates that both Covered Entities and Business Associates protect the security of Protected Health Information (PHI) in a variety of ways. Specifically,...more
A recently announced settlement between Anchorage Community Mental Health (“ACMHS”) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) emphasizes, once again, the importance of compliance with...more
HIPAA relies heavily on risk analysis in multiple contexts. For example, risk analysis has a major role in the Breach Notification Rule under the new regulations issued by the U.S. Department Health and Human Services on...more