Secretary Tom Price of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced his agency needs “to focus more on the most recent breaches and clarify when entities have taken action to resolve the issues that might have led to their breaches.” Accordingly, HHS’ Office of Civil Rights has launched a revised web tool … Continue Reading
It seems more companies are considering whether to purchase or enhance their cyber or data breach insurance coverage. In recent years, these offerings have expanded giving businesses more choice, and perhaps so has the need for such coverage given the explosion of access to and transmission of confidential data. What is interesting about this development is the different … Continue Reading
As we continue to examine the final HIPAA privacy and security regulations, as amended by the HITECH Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, we pulled together a summary of some of the key points. We fully expect additional sub-regulatory guidance to be provided by OCR, such as frequently asked questions and sample business associate agreement … Continue Reading
As we previously discussed, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) continues to push forward with the HIPAA audits required by the HITECH Act. To this end, the OCR recently posted the protocol which is used to conduct the HIPAA audits on its website. The HITECH Act requires HHS to provide for periodic audits to ensure covered … Continue Reading
While years of lax enforcement may have lulled many HIPAA covered entities and business associates to not take HIPAA seriously, recent activities by HHS, including the recently announced nationwide enforcement training program for State Attorneys General should spur renewed efforts toward compliance.… Continue Reading
Further to our discussions of the proposed regulations to implement statutory amendments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”), we summarize here a proposed changed to the definition of “business associate.” A significant part of the “HIPAA community” (covered entities, business associates and their agents and subcontractors) already … Continue Reading
We recently reported here that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing proposed regulations to implement statutory amendments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”). These proposed regulations contain a number of important points to think about for HIPAA covered entities (and business associates), even … Continue Reading
As we have discussed before, data breach notification is one of the most rapidly emerging areas of law. Good security incident procedures as well as effective training can help avoid the risk of data breach. (Sample data breach training). A case in point: Connecticut’s Attorney General has filed a civil action against Health Net of the Northeast … Continue Reading
New Hampshire’s new breach notification law builds on the breach notification requirements under the HITECH Act by requiring health care providers and business associates to notify individuals of disclosures of their protected health information that are prohibited by New Hampshire law, even if such disclosures are permitted under HIPAA or other federal law. This new … Continue Reading
“Cloud computing” takes many forms, but, fundamentally, it is a computer network system that allows consumers, businesses, and other entities to store data off-site and manage it with third-party-owned software accessed through the Internet. Files and software are stored centrally on a network to which end users can connect to access their files using computers … Continue Reading
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published interim final regulations on October 30, 2009, to update existing enforcement regulations under HIPAA for statutory revisions made by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. These regulations become effective November 30, 2009, and only address the provisions of the HITECH Act already … Continue Reading
