It is not common for issues related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to make headlines, particularly in a murder case. HIPAA has recently been the subject of court filings in People v. Luigi...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on June 18, 2025, issued an order vacating the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy, published on April 26, 2024, which amended the Health...more
6/20/2025
/ Data Privacy ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
Judicial Review ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
PHI ,
Privacy Laws ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
Statutory Authority ,
Vacated
In the third and final episode of Florida Capital Conversations' healthcare privacy series, Tallahassee attorneys Shannon Hartsfield and Eddie Williams join hosts Nathan Adams and Mia McKown to discuss the challenges of...more
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-covered entities and business associates should be familiar with restrictions on the use or disclosure of protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA rules....more
5/14/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
International Data Transfers ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
National Security ,
New Regulations ,
NIST ,
PHI ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Sensitive Personal Information ,
Trump Administration
In the first episode of a "Florida Capital Conversations" new healthcare privacy series, Tallahassee healthcare attorneys Shannon Hartsfield and Eddie Williams discuss the evolving landscape of genetic data privacy, focusing...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that strengthens the Security Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which, if...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued an unpublished Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that strengthens the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule and, if...more
1/2/2025
/ Business Associates ,
Comment Period ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
HIPAA Security Rule ,
NPRM ,
OCR
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
12/4/2024
/ Business Associates ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Dates ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Privacy ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Security Rule ,
NIST ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Privacy Laws ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
Security and Privacy Controls
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
11/22/2024
/ Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hospitals ,
New Regulations ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Security and Privacy Controls ,
State Health Departments
President Ronald Reagan famously quipped, "I think you all know that I've always felt that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."1 At an Oct. 23-24, 2024,...more
10/31/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Biden Administration ,
Compliance ,
Covered Entities ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Internet of Things ,
Medical Devices ,
NIST ,
OCR ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Security and Privacy Controls ,
Technical Conference
Healthcare providers running on thin margins or just seeking new (and in the case of tax-exempt providers, permissible) revenue sources may jump at the chance when third party vendors offer to help them monetize their patient...more
7/22/2024
/ Business Associates ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Data Selling ,
De-Identification ,
De-Identified Protected Health Information ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Monetization ,
Penalties ,
PHI ,
Privacy Laws ,
Statutory Violations
A recent federal court decision is a victory for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) covered entities using third-party tracking tools on unauthenticated webpages. These are websites available to the...more
6/26/2024
/ American Hospital Association et al v Becerra Secretary Of Health And Human Services et al ,
Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Judgment ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
IP Addresses ,
Judicial Review ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Warning Letters ,
Web Tracking ,
Websites
After months of uncertainty and multiple letters from industry associations advocating on behalf of the healthcare industry with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), covered...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has, as part of its mandate, the responsibility to enforce the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule....more
5/14/2024
/ Audits ,
Business Associates ,
Compliance ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Security Rule ,
HITECH Act ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Risk Assessment ,
Web Tracking
In the midst of an industry reeling from the Change Healthcare cybersecurity incident, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a series of final rules requiring...more
"Informed consent" has been described as "a bedrock principle of healthcare in a free society," and if a "patient is denied the ability to exercise or even consider informed consent, the patient's personal liberty suffers."1...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued updated guidance on March 18, 2024 regarding the use of online tracking technologies by entities and business associates covered by the...more
3/19/2024
/ Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Guidance Update ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Tracking Systems ,
Web Tracking ,
Websites
Hospitals care about patient privacy, but they also have to connect with the public. In the real world, people mostly connect online. Having a fully functional online presence often requires help from third parties. ...more
11/8/2023
/ American Hospital Association ,
Business Associates ,
Class Action ,
Covered Entities ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hospitals ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Tracking Systems ,
Web Tracking
In this episode of our “Florida Capital Conversations” podcast series, healthcare attorneys Mia McKown, Eddie Williams and Shannon Hartsfield discuss how privacy violations can put a healthcare practitioner's license at risk....more
In this episode of "Counsel That Cares," HIPAA and healthcare privacy attorneys Beth Pitman and Shannon Hartsfield dissect the highly publicized Dinerstein v. Google case. They address the implications and concerns of sharing...more
Providing care via electronic communication when patients and providers are in separate locations, known as telemedicine or telehealth, has been possible for decades. The exigent circumstances sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is on a roll in its efforts to signal to the digital health industry that data privacy must be a priority. The FTC announced a consent decree with BetterHelp on March 2, 2023, to settle...more
3/7/2023
/ Advertising ,
Consent Decrees ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cookies ,
Digital Health ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Marketing ,
Mental Health ,
Telehealth ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
For the first time ever, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking enforcement under the Health Breach Notification Rule. This regulation requires certain businesses not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and...more
2/3/2023
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Consent ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
Data-Sharing ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Technology ,
HIPAA Breach ,
HIPAA Breach Notification Rule ,
Mobile Apps
For years, patients and healthcare companies have been wrestling with privacy issues relating to cookies, pixels and other tracking technologies. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Civil Rights...more
12/5/2022
/ Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
New Guidance ,
OCR ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Popular ,
Tracking Systems ,
Web Tracking
Telehealth has been around for decades, but restrictive reimbursement rules kept it out of widespread use for many treatment needs. Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic and everything changed rapidly. Suddenly, due to the...more
10/5/2022
/ Compliance ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Data Privacy ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
GAO ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Information Reports ,
Medical Reimbursement ,
OCR ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine