Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra has officially sworn in Melanie Fontes Rainer as director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Since assuming the role...
From 2009 to June 2022, organizations reported nearly 5,000 healthcare data breaches to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) data breach portal, researchers at Comparitech found. The breaches impacted...
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) settled a case with New England Dermatology and Laser Center (NEDLC) to resolve a potential HIPAA violation involving improper protected health information (PHI)...
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced 11 HIPAA Right of Access resolutions. OCR created the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative in 2019 to support patients' right to timely and...
Oklahoma State University – Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS) agreed to pay the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) $875,000 in a data breach settlement. OSU-CHS also agreed to implement a...
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance on patient privacy and rights under the HIPAA Privacy Rule that can help patients maintain security and privacy in light of the recent Roe v. Wade...
In its latest report, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) called on HHS to improve the healthcare data breach reporting process. Specifically, GAO urged HHS to create a mechanism for entities...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released version 3.3 of the HHS Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool.
ONC and OCR...
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced plans to produce a pre-recorded video presentation on the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) recognized security...
Three organizations suffered healthcare data breaches and reported them to HHS recently. All three incidents described below involved unauthorized access to certain systems or email accounts.
In...
The Connected Health Initiative (CHI) and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) both responded to the HHS Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) request for information (RFI) surrounding...
Eye Care Leaders, which offers an ophthalmology-specific EMR solution, experienced unauthorized access to its myCare Integrity system in December 2021.
Since notifying impacted eye care practices on...
HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a request for information (RFI) seeking feedback on two requirements under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act...
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced four HIPAA enforcement actions to hold healthcare providers accountable for potential HIPAA violations. Two of the actions stemmed from OCR’s HIPAA...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its quarter one newsletter, containing tips for defending against some of the most common healthcare cyberattacks.
The newsletter stated that healthcare...
Office for Civil Rights (OCR) director Lisa J. Pino urged healthcare organizations to prioritize cybersecurity in 2022 in a recent blog post on HHS’s website. Healthcare data breaches are still...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of five cases under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. OCR created the initiative in 2019 in order to support patients' right to timely...
Healthcare cyberattacks continue to overwhelm the sector as the end of the year approaches. At the time of publication, one Ohio hospital is facing ongoing EHR downtime and appointment cancelations as...
HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced the appointment of a new director, Lisa J. Pino, who will take over the office’s oversight of civil rights enforcement, HIPAA...
The COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout have brought HIPAA into the spotlight, but many Americans continue to misunderstand how HIPAA relates and does not relate to vaccination status. As a result,...
