HIPAA Enforcement

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Prior to the holiday, the OCR settled its thirteenth enforcement action under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which involved a primary care physician practicing in the State of Georgia.  Dr. Peter Wrobel, M.D., P.C., operating under the fictitious name of Elite Primary Care, became subject to an OCR investigation (twice) for his alleged violations…

The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently settled four more investigations under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which totals 11 settlements thus far.  In September, the OCR released a press release detailing its settlement of five additional actions under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. In…

Mental Health/substance abuse providers and providers treating HIV/AIDS patients are held to a higher standard when it comes to protecting medical records, requiring additional levels of consent and analysis prior to productions. However, recent settlements published by the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) on September 15, 2020…

By Margaret J. Davino, Salvatore J. Russo and Nawa A. Lodin

In the Medicare Telemedicine Healthcare Provider Fact Sheet published March 17, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) broadened access to Medicare telehealth services to allow Medicare patients to receive more services from their doctors without travel to a health care…

Effective March 15, 2020, certain hospitals that fail to comply with specific HIPAA Privacy Rule requirements will not be subject to HIPAA sanctions and penalties, according to a “COVID-19 & HIPAA Bulletin” issued by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar. The waiver was implemented as a response to President Trump’s…

It’s that time again for year-in-review articles. On December 16, 2019,  Modern Healthcare has published an infographic that compares HIPAA breaches which occurred in 2019 to aggregate breach statistics from 2010-2018.  The 2019 data was analyzed through the end of November. A few interesting trends appear.  Let’s go to the numbers:

Breaches by Location:

In…

With the explosion of health data sifting through cutting-edge companies, industry stakeholders are left to wonder how wearable devices, wellness programs, health applications, and the like should be regulated.

Despite current belief, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) does not regulate all health information. HIPAA regulates health information collected and retained by covered…