The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced Phase 2 of its HIPAA audits, according to a public announcement. In its 2016 Phase 2 Audit Program, OCR will review the policies and procedures of selected covered entities and business associates to examine compliance with the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.
HHS Issues New HIPAA Exception for Reporting Mental Health Information to National Firearms Database
On Jan. 6, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule adding a new exception to the HIPAA regulations. The rule allows certain covered entities to report limited information about individuals to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the database maintained by the FBI for conducting background checks, to … more »
The New York attorney general recently entered into a settlement agreement with the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) for HIPAA violations. The enforcement action by New York comes on the heels of a HIPAA enforcement action by the Connecticut attorney general in early November 2015. Prior to the Health Information Technology for Economic and … more »
The Connecticut attorney general is one of the few who has taken advantage of the 2009 provision in the HITECH Act which grants authority to states to enforce HIPAA violations. On Nov. 6, 2015, the Connecticut attorney general announced that it entered into a settlement agreement (Assurance of Voluntary Compliance) with the Hartford Hospital and … more »
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced its plan to conduct the second phase of HIPAA audits in early 2016. This announcement comes in response to the Office of Inspector General’s report recommending that the OCR should strengthen its oversight of covered entities in a number of ways. The OCR stated that the … more »
On July 10, 2015, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a HIPAA settlement with St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC), a tertiary care hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts. SEMC has agreed to pay $218,400 and adopt a robust corrective action plan. The settlement is the result of two alleged violations. First, SEMC workforce members filed … more »