HIPAA covered laboratories and hospitals with laboratories subject to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”) must comply with changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule that provide patients with direct access to laboratory test results by October 6, 2014. Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the HHS Office for Civil […]
Health Privacy
HIPAA Audit Program Phase 2: Delayed
A representative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has recently revealed that OCR has delayed the start of phase 2 of its HIPAA Audit Program – and has revised its plans for phase 2. Previous Plans for Phase 2 Earlier this year, OCR had announced that phase […]
HHS OIG Releases Report Regarding ONC’s Oversight of Testing and Certification of Electronic Health Records
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued a report regarding the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) oversight of electronic health record (EHR) testing and certification, “The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Oversight of the Testing and Certification of Electronic Health Records.” ONC was statutorily […]
OCR Issues Two New Reports to Congress on HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement from 2011 to 2012
Last week the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) presented certain findings regarding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) compliance and enforcement to the National Committee on Health and Vital Statistics (“NCHVS”), an HHS advisory committee. The presentation reviewed OCR’s two recently issued reports to Congress. OCR is required to submit such reports under […]
West Virginia High Court Finds Standing without Harm for Invasion of Privacy Claim in State Data Breach Class Action
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recently issued an important – but outlier – decision in a data breach class action. In a per curiam decision, the Court held that the plaintiffs had standing to bring their claims even though discovery revealed that not a single class member – much less the named plaintiffs […]