On July 21, 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released an updated draft of its HIPAA Security Rule guidance.
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Security Rule
HHS Issues Post-Dobbs Guidance to Protect Patient Privacy
On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued two guidance documents to “help protect patients seeking reproductive health care, as well as their providers” following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. …
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HHS Releases Guidance on Audio-Only Telehealth Practices
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights released guidance to help covered entities understand how they can use remote communication technologies for audio-only telehealth in compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Specifically, the Guidance clarifies how audio-only telehealth can be conducted after OCR’s Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth, put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, is no longer in effect.
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California Attorney General Reminds Health App Providers of Obligations to Protect Reproductive Health Information
On May 26, 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a press release reminding health app providers that California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act applies to mobile apps that are designed to store medical information, which includes health apps such as fertility trackers. …
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Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates MD Anderson HIPAA Penalty
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently vacated a 4.3 million dollar civil monetary penalty imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights in 2017 against the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, holding that the penalty was “arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise unlawful.”…
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HHS Imposes 1.6 Million Dollar Civil Penalty on Texas State Agency for Health Data Breach
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.
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Washington AG Settles with Premera on Behalf of Multistate Coalition
On July 11, 2019, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that his office had entered into a consent decree and $10 million settlement with Premera Blue Cross (“Premera”) that stems from a 2014-2015 breach that affected more than 11 million individuals. The settlement, which includes a payment of roughly $5.4 million to Washington state and $4.6 million to a coalition of 29 other state Attorneys General (the “Multistate AGs”), is one of the largest ever for a breach involving protected health information (“PHI”) and comes just one month after another notable HIPAA settlement involving a similar coalition of state AGs.
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OCR Settles with Medical Imaging Services Company
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.
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OCR Enters into Record Settlement with Anthem
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.
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Unsecured PHI Leads to OCR Settlement with Closed Business
On February 13, 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced that it had entered into a resolution agreement with the receiver appointed to liquidate the assets of Filefax, Inc. in order to settle potential violations of HIPAA. …
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