Relaxed HIPAA Restrictions For Providers Using Telehealth
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced another settlement for alleged violations of HIPAA. OCR investigated BayCare Health System, which serves central Florida, after a...more
In the past several weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") has announced settlements with three health care organizations — Comstar, LLC ("Comstar"); Guam Memorial...more
A single incident that may have started as a personal vendetta or an extortion threat seven years ago has cost a Florida health care system $800,000, and comes on the heels of an unrelated breach suffered by a different...more
What's New? On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an $800,000 settlement with a large Florida-based health care provider over potential violations of the...more
In the first five months of 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it had entered into ten Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) resolution...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on April 10, 2025, that it has settled alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations with Northeast Radiology for $350,000....more
Following the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recent publication of four settlements as part of a new Risk Analysis Audit Initiative. We explore the current regulatory language for Risk Analysis, the proposed language for Risk...more
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) was busy negotiating and settling enforcement actions in November and early December. Since October 31, 2024, the OCR has settled five separate...more
On October 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $500,000 settlement with Plastic Surgery Associates of South Dakota (“PSA”) concerning potential...more
Although the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) described its recent $4.75 million agreement with a Bronx, New York, hospital as settling a “malicious insider cybersecurity investigation,” the agency considered a total of 11...more
The federal agency responsible for enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) – the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – recently submitted...more
On February 6, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement with Montefiore Medical Center (“MMC”) for alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations and MMC agreed to pay $4.75 million and enter into a...more
On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with MedEvolve, Inc. for $350,000. MedEvolve provides practice and revenue cycle management and practice...more
Report on Patient Privacy Volume 22, Number 11. (November 2022) Nearly five years passed from the time the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that three...more
On August 23, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Massachusetts-based New England Dermatology, P.C., d/b/a New England Dermatology and Laser Center (NEDLC), agreed to...more
Report on Patient Privacy 22, no. 5 (May, 2022) - Compared to other agencies, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a little fish in the big federal pond, but it has an outsize effect on HIPAA covered entities (CEs) and...more
Report on Patient Privacy 20, no. 3 (March 2020) - As the new coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads across the United States, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is reminding HIPAA covered entities and business associates that...more