Leveraging Knowledge to Manage Your Data Risks
Last week, New York federal judge Vincent L. Bricetti dismissed a data breach class action against Northeast Radiology PC (Northeast) and Alliance HealthCare Services (Alliance) because the plaintiffs failed to allege a cognizable injury.
In July 2021, Jose Aponte II and Lisa Rosenberg filed suit alleging that Northeast and Alliance failed to protect their sensitive…
Continuing its serious march against covered entities not allowing patients access to their records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has settled two more cases in two days in its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the tally of OCR’s settlements to a total of 18.
The 17th settlement, with The Arbour, Inc., d/b/a Arbour…
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.…
On February 13, 2018, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $100,000 settlement with a court-appointed receiver representing Filefax, Inc. (Filefax) arising from the 2015 discovery of medical records that contained protected health information (PHI) of over two thousand individuals in a dumpster. Filefax, a now-defunct medical records moving and storage company located…
On January 8, 2018, Ciox Health, LLC (Ciox) filed a complaint against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and then-acting Secretary Eric D. Hargan, alleging that the Department’s rules and guidance, under HIPAA and HITECH, “impose[] tremendous financial and regulatory burdens on health care providers and threatens to upend the medical-records industry that…
In the wake of the national opioid overdose crisis, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has provided clarification on when covered entities are permitted to disclose patient information during opioid emergencies.
The OCR commented that some health care providers believe that they must have the patient’s consent in order to share information with family members about a patient’s opioid overdose.
The OCR has clarified that health care providers may share limited protected health information in natural disasters and during drug overdoses, if sharing the information could prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to a patient’s health or safety.
Continue Reading OCR Clarifies Privacy Rule for Sharing PHI on Opioid Overdoses
Hacking group Fancy Bear, reportedly a Russian group, who allegedly hacked into the Democratic National Committee emails which made headlines, has posted U.S. Olympians’ medical and drug testing records online. Although it has been described as a “smear” campaign, the U.S. Olympians, in Olympian style, tweeted and thumbed their noses at the hackers, by saying…
