Is a hospital a “consumer reporting agency”?  Can a health care provider be liable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in the event of a data breach?  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently considered these significant questions in the case of Tierney v. Advocate Health & Hosps. Corp. (7th Cir., No. 14-3168, August 10, 2015).  The defendant, Advocate Health, an Illinois-based health system, experienced a significant data breach in July 2013, in which four…

Public Act 15-88 is the first comprehensive law in Connecticut to address telemedicine (also referred to as “telehealth”), and to establish regulatory requirements for providing telehealth services, and mandates certain insurance coverage for such services. Telehealth is a mode of delivering health services to patients via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation and treatment, education, care management, and self-management of the patient’s physical and mental health. Under the new law, any of…