Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

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

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights issued guidance (the “Guidance”) for HIPAA-covered entities that use cloud computing services involving electronic protected health information (“ePHI”).

On August 4, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into a resolution agreement with Advocate Health Care Network (“Advocate”), the largest health care system in Illinois, over alleged HIPAA violations. The $5.5 million settlement with Advocate is the largest settlement to date against a single covered entity.

On July 21, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into resolution agreements with two large public health centers, Oregon Health & Science University (“OHSU”) and the University of Mississippi Medical Center (“UMMC”), over alleged HIPAA violations.

On June 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that it had settled potential HIPAA Security Rule violations with Catholic Health Care Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (“CHCS”). This is the first enforcement action OCR has taken against a business associate since the HIPAA Omnibus Rule was enacted in 2013. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule made business associates directly liable for their violations of the HIPAA rules. The settlement with CHCS is also notable because it involved a breach that affected fewer than 500 individuals.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently announced resolution agreements with Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic, P.A., (“Raleigh Orthopaedic”) and New York-Presbyterian Hospital (“NYP”) for HIPAA Privacy Rule violations.

On November 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that Triple-S Management Corporation ("Triple-S"), an insurance holding company based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, agreed on behalf of certain of its subsidiaries to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”).

We understand that yesterday Adam H. Greene (Office of the General Counsel, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), speaking at the ABA’s 11th Annual Conference on Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law, indicated that enforcement of the business associate provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”), which became effective on February 17, 2010, will be delayed until final rules addressing those provisions are published.  The HITECH Act’s business associate provisions require business associates to implement the information security safeguards specified by the HIPAA Security Rule, and comply with certain requirements of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.  Similarly, the HITECH Act requires covered entities to provide in their business associate agreements that all of the HITECH Act’s security requirements applicable to covered entities are also applicable to business associates.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”), which was signed into law in February 2009 as part of the economic stimulus package, substantially impacts requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The HITECH Act creates several new and potentially burdensome obligations that affect the relationship between covered entities and business associates. Because these changes are quite substantial and necessitate revisions to existing business associate agreements ...