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On September 30, 2020, Anthem, Inc., entered into an assurance of voluntary compliance with the attorneys general of 42 states and the District of Columbia to resolve claims under state and federal law relating to Anthem’s 2015 data breach of personal information and protected health information, the largest breach of PHI in history.…
Continue Reading 42 States and District of Columbia Enter into $39.5 Million Agreement with Anthem to Settle Breach-Related Claims

The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released joint guidance on the application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy Rule to student records.…
Continue Reading Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services Release First Update to Joint Guidance on FERPA and HIPAA Since 2008

On November 7, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a $1.6 million civil penalty imposed against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for violations of HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.…
Continue Reading HHS Imposes 1.6 Million Dollar Civil Penalty on Texas State Agency for Health Data Breach

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recently published a white paper on Organizational Accountability’s Existence in U.S. Regulatory Compliance and its Relevance for a Federal Data Privacy Law.…
Continue Reading Organizational Accountability in U.S. Law and Its Relevance to a Federal Data Privacy Law: A CIPL Study

On May 6, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced that it had entered into a resolution agreement and $3 million settlement with Touchstone Medical Imaging. The settlement is the first OCR HIPAA enforcement action in 2019, following an all-time record year of HIPAA enforcement in 2018.…
Continue Reading OCR Settles with Medical Imaging Services Company

On April 26, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reduced the available penalties for three out of the four tiers of privacy and security violations set forth in the HITECH Act. This blog entry provides an overview of the reductions.…
Continue Reading Federal Government Reduces Maximum Annual Penalties for Most Healthcare Privacy Violations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently published “Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices: Managing Threats and Protecting Patients,” which was developed by the Healthcare & Public Health Sector Coordinating Councils Public Private Partnership, a group comprised of over 150 cybersecurity and healthcare experts from government and private industry.…
Continue Reading HHS Publishes Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices

Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights entered into a resolution agreement and record settlement of $16 million with Anthem, Inc. following Anthem’s 2015 data breach, the largest breach of protected health information in history that affected approximately 79 million individuals.…
Continue Reading OCR Enters into Record Settlement with Anthem

In its most recent cybersecurity newsletter, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights provided guidance regarding identifying vulnerabilities and mitigating the associated risks on software used to process electronic protected health information.…
Continue Reading OCR Issues Guidance on Disclosures to Family, Friends and Others