Compliance Perspective: What's New in Healthcare Privacy
On August 18, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with BST & Co. CPAs, LLP (BST). The announcement continues OCR’s escalating enforcement of the HIPAA...more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) years-long effort to modernize its Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) in the midst of a swiftly changing technological landscape appears to be coming to an end. On Thursday, May 30,...more
In light of the ongoing investigation of Change Healthcare’s ransomware attack that resulted in the improper disclosure of thousands of individuals’ PHI, now seems like a perfect time to discuss HIPAA’s requirements...more
In March of this year, The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services issued a letter addressing the recent cybersecurity incident impacting many health care entities, primarily Change Healthcare,...more
Late on March 27, Change Healthcare (CHC)’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group (UHG), provided an update on its analysis of the extent of “impacted data” involved in the CHC incident....more
On Feb. 16, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published its 2022 Annual Report to Congress. ...more
Data Breaches risk legal consequences—both from state and federal governments and consumers, as well as reputational harm. Last month, MCNA—a dental benefit provider—provided notice of a data breach that exposed the...more
HIPAA requires that covered entities notify the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of any breaches of unsecured protected health information that affects less than 500 individuals in a calendar year within 60 days following the...more
Recently, lawsuits have been filed against Duke and WakeMed regarding their use of Meta’s Meta Pixel tracking product and the alleged improper disclosure of patients’ protected health information (“PHI”). The U.S. Department...more
HIPAA-covered entities should note the quickly approaching March 1, 2022 deadline for reporting breaches of unsecured protected health information that occurred in 2021 and involved fewer than 500 individuals. This article...more
Recently the Health Care Compliance Association released the new Health Care Privacy Handbook, 3rd Edition. https://www.hcca-info.org/health-care-privacy-handbook To learn what’s new in the book and in healthcare privacy...more
On July 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it reached a settlement with a Rhode Island nonprofit health system related to the theft of an unencrypted laptop containing its...more
On May 22, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) published its decennial request for public comment (the “RFC”) on the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule (the “HBN Rule”)....more
Every year, we remind our readers that the HIPAA data breach notification regulations require covered entities to notify the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of any reportable data breaches that involved fewer than 500...more
Report on Patient Privacy Volume 19, Number 11. (November 2019) ? The biggest threat to protected health information comes from carelessness within your organization, according to a brief from the Clearwater...more