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Business Associates › Covered Entities › Healthcare

Business Associates can refer broadly to individuals engaged in business relationships with one another. However, in the HIPAA context, the term has a specific statutory meaning and those characterized as... more +
Business Associates can refer broadly to individuals engaged in business relationships with one another. However, in the HIPAA context, the term has a specific statutory meaning and those characterized as business associates have expanded data protection obligations and duties. Essentially, a business associate under HIPAA is a person or entity that performs certain functions or services which necessitates exposure to protected health information on behalf of a covered entity. Typical business associate functions include: claims processing or administration, data analysis, billing, etc.    less -
Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

$1.5M Warby Parker Fine a Holdover; OCR Focuses On Men in Sports, Antisemitism, ‘Biological Truth’

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

Nearly six years to the day that Warby Parker reported a breach affecting nearly 200,000 individuals, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) imposed a $1.5 million fine on the eyewear giant. Investigated by OCR under the Biden...more

Brooks Pierce

OIG Recommends Changes to HIPAA Audit Program to Strengthen Data Protections, Implications for Regulated Entities

Brooks Pierce on

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is required by law to perform periodic audits of covered entities and business associates to ensure their compliance with HIPAA Security Rule...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Recognized Security Practices ‘Saved’ Covered Entity $60K of $300K Fine, But Which Ones Remain a Mystery

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

Covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) may receive a “discount” for having recognized security practices (RSPs) in place when the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) calculates financial penalties for Security...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

BAAs: If and when third parties receiving PHI for research qualify as BAs under HIPAA

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

A business associate agreement (BAA) is a written contract between a covered entity (CE) and a business associate (BA) that—among other requirements—(1) establishes the permitted and required uses and disclosures of protected...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

HHS Abandons Appeal in Public Website Pixel Case, But CEs and BAs Should Expect Continued Scrutiny

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has abandoned its appeal of a federal judge’s ruling overturning OCR’s guidance prohibiting covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) from using the web-tracking technologies...more

Verrill

HHS Issues Model Attestation Required by Final HIPAA Regulations Supporting Reproductive Health Care Privacy

Verrill on

On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published Final Regulations under HIPAA’s Privacy Rule introducing greater protections for information related to...more

Epstein Becker & Green

HHS Publishes Final Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy

Epstein Becker & Green on

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to eliminate the federal constitutional right to abortion continues to alter the legal landscape across the country. On April 26, 2024, the...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

‘I Will Not Rest’; ‘I Am All In’: Remarkable Breach Hearing Sees Pledges by UHG CEO, Sen. Wyden

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

United Healthcare Group (UHG) CEO Andrew Witty was in a board meeting on Feb. 21 when officials interrupted with the news that Change Healthcare—a clearinghouse UHG subsidiary Optum had purchased for $1.3 billion in October...more

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)

Privacy Briefs: May 2024

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) on

Kaiser Permanente is notifying 13.4 million current and former members that their personal information may have been compromised when it was transmitted to tech giants Google, Microsoft Bing and X (formerly Twitter) when...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Top 5 Reasons to Remember Your Business Associate Agreements This Fall

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

As organizations begin renewing and entering into new contractual relationships for 2024, an oft-forgotten aspect of the contracting process is determining whether a Business Associate Agreement (a “BAA”) is required. Under...more

Holland & Hart - Health Law Blog

HHS Reduces the Annual Cap for Most HIPAA Penalties

Holland & Hart - Health Law Blog on

HIPAA penalties vary depending on the type of conduct involved. (45 CFR § 160.404). Under HHS’s prior interpretation, the types of violations were all subject to an annual maximum penalty of $1,500,000 for identical types of...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

UMass Amherst Settles HIPAA Violations with OCR for $650,000

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced that the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) has agreed to settle an investigation against it as a result of a malware infection for $650,000, along with implementing a...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

OCR Alerts Listservs About Fake Phishing Email to Covered Entities and Business Associates

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on

On November 28, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued an Alert to its listservs that a phishing email is being circulated on “mock HHS Departmental letterhead under the signature of OCR”s Director, Jocelyn Samuels”...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

OCR Stresses Importance of Authentication in Newsletter

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on

In a recent newsletter, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) encourages health care organizations to review their procedures around authentication and “ensure that they have the appropriate safeguards in place.”...more

Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx

HIPAA Audits – Phase 2: On-Site Audits Scheduled for First Quarter of 2017

Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx on

Covered Entities and Business Associates may be ringing in the New Year with the prospect of responding to on-site HIPAA audits by federal regulators. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights...more

Stinson LLP

HHS Publishes New Guidance on HIPAA and Cloud Computing

Stinson LLP on

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a new guidance regarding HIPAA compliance and the use of cloud computing solutions. The guidance is intended to assist covered entities...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

OCR Releases HIPAA Guidance on Cloud Computing

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on

On October 6, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released HIPAA guidance on cloud computing (Guidance). The Guidance is intended to help covered entities and business associates...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

GAO Study Slams HHS For Lack of Guidance to Covered Entities

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on

We watch closely for any guidance to HIPAA covered entities and business associates from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS/OCR). Why? Because there is so little of it. Lately, the only...more

Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx

Best Practices for Safeguarding Protected Health Information in Inclement Weather

Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx on

As the East Coast prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Matthew, covered entities and business associates should take the opportunity to remind their workforce members to safeguard protected health information (PHI) that is...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Is Your HIPAA Compliance Program Ready for the FTC?

Womble Bond Dickinson on

Everyone in healthcare knows that the next round of HIPAA audits is coming. Covered entities and business associates have long been advised to review and update their HIPAA security risk analyses, have business associate...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Fitbit Agrees to Sign Business Associate Agreements and Take on HIPAA Compliance

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP on

Is your Fitbit data covered by HIPAA? It depends upon where you got it (kind of). If you go to the store and pick up a Fitbit on your own, the data it generates is governed by the user agreement that you click through...more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Don’t Wait for It; Recent HIPAA Enforcement Action Signal More to Come in Phase 2 Audits

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP on

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

Foley & Lardner LLP

Big Data Creates New Opportunities for Health Care Entities

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Big Data — the ability to collect, process, and interpret massive amounts of information — has reached health care. Technology has created new business opportunities for health care entities — covered entities, business...more

Carlton Fields

HIPAA: Deadlines Pass and Definitions Change

Carlton Fields on

For all covered entities and business associates, September 22 was the last day for business associate agreements (BAAs) to comply with the Omnibus HIPAA Rule (the Rule) released in January 2013. Before the Rule’s release,...more

FordHarrison

Business Associate Agreements May Require Amendment

FordHarrison on

The Omnibus Final Rule (the "Omnibus Rule") under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"), was issued in January, 2013 effective March 26, 2013, but with a general compliance deadline of...more

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