HITECH

The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released a “sample” letter that will be used as the template for the actual letters that OCR will issue to those covered entities that are selected for HIPAA audits in 2012.
Continue Reading HHS/OCR Audits Are Almost Here – OCR Issues “Sample” Audit Letter

Those entities subject to both the HIPAA privacy and security rules should pay close attention to recent action taken by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, which will increase the frequency and depth of government audits for HIPAA/ITECH compliance over the next year.
Continue Reading HHS/OCR Audits are Coming: What are Covered Entities Doing to Prepare?

Spectators of the Protected Health Information Breach Parade (and of the “silent brigade” of Business Associate breaches) will be awed by the sight of the recent, somewhat bizarre, Business Associate breach involving Stanford Hospital’s emergency room data.
Continue Reading Stanford Hospital Emergency Room Data Breach: the Snoopy® Float Materializes in the Parade of PHI Breaches

Last week for the first time, the Office for Civil Rights of HHS reported exacting heavy financial obligations from (i) Cignet Health on February 22, 2011, with a $4.3 million civil monetary penalty assessment for violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, and (ii) Massachusetts General Hospital on February 24, 2011, for a settlement that includes a payment to the U.S. government of $1,000,000 for potential violations of HIPAA.
Continue Reading New Turn in the Parade of PHI Breaches: Office of Civil Rights Exacts Heavy Payments From Cignet Health and Massachusetts General Hospital

On January 18, 2011, the office of Attorney General William Sorrell of Vermont announced in a press release that it had settled a lawsuit against Health Net, Inc., involving an alleged PHI security breach, by means of a consent decree which requires court approval.
Continue Reading The Parade of PHI Security Breaches: Escalating Enforcement Activity by State Attorneys General – Most Recently in Vermont