Health Information Privacy

A point of sale vendor for at least three cannabis dispensaries in the United States exposed the personal data of at least 30,000 cannabis users, including full names, photo IDs, dates of birth, telephone numbers, home addresses, medical ID numbers, email addresses, signatures, cannabis variety and quantity purchased, and sales figures when it failed to

Concern over the spreading coronavirus from China is legitimate and real. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus a global health emergency, and the United States and other countries are limiting travel of individuals from the affected areas in China.

As we have seen with other public concerns, cyber criminals and threat actors

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued an Important Notice Regarding Individuals’ Right of Access to Health Records through its email list serve on January 29, 2020.  In the Notice, OCR addressed the recent memorandum Opinion issued in Ciox Health v. Azar, et al, No. 18-cv-00040 (D.D.C.

Following the escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran in the past week, the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) is warning hospitals and health systems that Iran could attack health organizations, which are considered critical infrastructure, and that they make sure their systems are being updated with patches.

H-ISAC further recommended

On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its second “HIPAA Right of Access Initiative” settlement of alleged HIPAA violations.

The HIPAA Right of Access Initiative is a new effort in 2019 by OCR to monitor compliance with HIPAA requirements addressing patient rights to promptly

Arizona-based Banner Health has agreed to settle for up to $6 million a class action case filed against it following a 2016 incident that compromised the personal information of 3 million individuals. The breach compromised data on two information technology systems at the health system, including patient information and health insurance information on one system,

On November 27, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $2.175 million dollar settlement with a hospital system to resolve alleged violations of HIPAA’s Breach Notification Rule and Privacy Rule. The settlement is noteworthy as it represents OCR’s fourth HIPAA settlement in excess of $1 million

In accordance with the Inflation Adjustment Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has updated its regulations to reflect required annual inflation-related increases to civil monetary penalties, including those for certain violations of HIPAA’s “administrative simplification” provisions. The final regulations became effective on November 5, 2019, the date they were published in the