One of the breach notices that showed up in routine searches this morning was from Associated Eye Care Partners, LLC (“AEC”). The first sentence of the notification letter was: We are contacting you to inform you of a data incident experienced by a third-party vendor for Associated Eye Care Partners, LLC (“AEC”). My mind…
Category: HIPAA
OCR: Current Fines Too Low to Spur Compliance; Agency Also Seeks Funding Boost, Injunctive Relief
Theresa Defino reports: Compared to other agencies, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a little fish in the big federal pond, but it has an outsize effect on HIPAA covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs). And, if Congress agrees, its impact would expand significantly in the coming months. As part of its…
HHS OCR Issues Annual HIPAA Reports to Congress
Chris Bennington of Epstein Becker Green writes, in part: The HITECH Act requires OCR to issue annual reports to Congress of HIPAA breaches and complaints received by OCR during the calendar year. For 2020, OCR reported that it received 656 notifications of breaches affecting 500 or more individuals, 66,509 notifications of breaches affecting fewer than…
Five ransomware groups, five victims… will it ever ease up?
The following is a snapshot of recent attacks on U.S. healthcare entities by ransomware teams. #1 First Choice Community Healthcare – Hive Hive threat actors have never sworn off attacking the healthcare sector. In addition to claiming that they attacked the Partnership HealthPlan of California on March 19 (an attack that has impacted PHPC’s functioning),…
ANNOUNCE: HHS’ Office for Civil Rights Seeks Public Comment on Recognized Security Practices and Sharing Civil Money Penalties and Monetary Settlements Under the HITECH Act
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today released a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from the public on two requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act), as amended in 2021. The growing number of cybersecurity threats are…
HIPAA: The Who: Plans, Providers, and Clearinghouses, and the First of the Rule of 3s.
With all the wildly erroneous claims made by people about what is covered by HIPAA, here’s a great explainer by attorney Jeff Drummond on exactly what kinds of entities ARE covered by HIPAA (Spoiler alert: yes, your local bar CAN ask you your vaccination status without violating HIPAA because they are not covered by HIPAA)….