Twenty different providers have been hit with fines since the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative in April 2019. … [Read more...]
HIPAA
Ambry Genetics Case Shows Why It’s So Hard for Patients to Win a HIPAA Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit
May 10, 2021
Data breaches that compromise the protected health information (PHI) of massive numbers of patients have become all too common. In addition to steep HIPAA fines and horrible public relations, such … [Read more...]
Compliance
Brief Your CEO: New OCR Data Shed Light on the Costs of Privacy Noncompliance
April 2, 2021
Getting lab officers to shell out money for compliance initiatives may be trickier when the penalties you’re trying to head off are for privacy violations. After all, HIPAA penalties tend to be fairly … [Read more...]
Enforcement Trends:
New Administration Continues OCR HIPAA Right of Access Initiative
February 22, 2021
Although the Biden administration has signaled its intention to revisit just about every healthcare regulatory initiative of its predecessor, one enforcement undertaking seems to be continuing … [Read more...]
Compliance
By The Numbers: The Costs of Not Complying With HIPAA Requirements
February 22, 2021
Although it doesn’t make the federal government nearly as much money as the False Claims Act and other healthcare fraud law, enforcing HIPAA is still quite a profitable business. There’s also less … [Read more...]
Labs in Court
4.3 Million Is Too High a Penalty for HIPAA Violation, Says Federal Court
February 19, 2021
Case: A federal appeals court has shot down what had been the fourth largest OCR penalty for a HIPAA violation as having “no lawful basis.” That decision means that instead of $4.3 million, the … [Read more...]
HIPAA
OCR Cracks Down on Providers Who Don’t Provide Individuals Timely Access to PHI
November 3, 2020
The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires labs and other health care providers to provide persons on whom they keep health records and other protected health information (PHI) timely access to that information … [Read more...]
Compliance Perspectives
How to Create a Legally Sound COVID-19 Medical Screening Policy
April 27, 2020
As essential workplaces, testing labs need to remain open and operating during the pandemic. At the same time, they need to ensure that employees practice social distancing and keep the infected and … [Read more...]
Compliance Corner
Compliance Corner: The HIPAA Right of Access Crackdown Continues
March 4, 2020
On Sept. 9, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the HHS agency in charge of federal HIPAA enforcement, did something it had never done before by entering into a monetary settlement with a … [Read more...]
Coronavirus and Patient Privacy: How the HIPAA Rules Change During a Public Health Emergency
March 2, 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has officially been declared a public health emergency. And the usual HIPAA Privacy restrictions on collecting, using and disclosing patients’ personal health information (PHI) … [Read more...]
