Late last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $3.5 million settlement with a large provider of kidney dialysis services (the “Provider”) for multiple violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and its associated regulations (HIPAA).  In early 2013, the Provider filed five separate breach reports for incidents that occurred in 2012 and involved several of its facilities.  These breaches involved, among other things,…

After roughly seven months since the last announced settlement, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human services has announced a settlement of alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The first OCR settlement of 2018 concerns a HIPAA security breach of electronic data. At the same time, a recently announced settlement of a private class action against Aetna highlights the importance of HIPAA privacy…

The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that enforces the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, recently released its preliminary results for Covered Entities participating in its Phase 2 HIPAA compliance audit program.  Overall, the audit shows significant compliance gaps for the entities audited. While the Phase 2 audits examined Covered Entities and Business Associates, the preliminary results are limited to the 166…

Last week, Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (with their co-sponsors, Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Ron Johnson (R-WI)) released the “Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Amendment” (“Graham-Cassidy bill”), which, if passed, would have repealed major sections of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Specifically, the bill would have repealed the ACA’s individual and employer mandates, ended the Medicaid expansion in 2020, replaced the ACA’s subsidy program with state block grants (which…

The fast-growing field of digital health is transforming healthcare by bringing together digital communications technology, electronic health information, electronic prescribing, connected medical devices, and telehealth. These technologies are being deployed by healthcare entities ranging from small health tech startups to large, established hospital systems, medical device companies, and other traditional healthcare companies. Telehealth systems are already in use for applications as varied as direct-to-consumer urgent care and remote provider-to-provider consultations for treatment of complex conditions…

Senate Republicans have released several bills in recent weeks in support of their goal of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This morning, that effort appears to have failed. On Tuesday, the Senate narrowly approved a motion to proceed, allowing the chamber to begin consideration of measures to achieve that goal. Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with the Democrats against the motion, but Vice President Mike…