Articles and Blogs

On January 19, 2021, OCR announced that it will exercise its discretion in enforcing the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules by not imposing penalties for noncompliance with those requirements against covered entities who are health care providers or their business associates in connection with the use of online or web-based scheduling applications... READ MORE

Following a Notice of Enforcement Discretion (“NED”) issued earlier this year (discussed in our previous article here), the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has issued detailed guidance addressing the sharing of protected health information (“PHI”) through health information exchanges (“HIEs”) for public health activities of a public health authority (“PHA”). An HIE enables participants... READ MORE

On December 2, 2020, both the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued final rules amending the Anti‑Kickback Statute safe harbor and Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark) exception for EHR donations (“EHR Donation Rules”), as well as a new safe harbor and exception for... READ MORE

On October 28, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) coauthored an urgent cybersecurity advisory (the “CISA Alert”) describing the tactics, techniques and procedures (“TTPs”) used by cybercriminals against targets in the Healthcare and Public Health Sector (“HPH”)... READ MORE

Published on May 1, 2020, the Information Blocking Regulations (“Regulations”) currently have a compliance date of November 2, 2020. These Regulations reflect a paradigm shift in how health care providers must provide access to electronic health information. Further guidance is pending from CMS and OIG regarding enforcement of the rule; however, exclusion and $1... READ MORE

Beginning on November 2, 2020, health care providers around the nation must ensure compliance with the newly published Information Blocking Regulations (the “Regulations”). Reflecting a shift in how health care providers must provide access to electronic health information, these Regulations aim to improve the quality and availability of health care but also pose a... READ MORE

The push for increased telehealth coverage continues during the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”). On October 14, 2020, CMS added 11 new telehealth services available for Medicare reimbursement during the PHE. The newly added services include cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services and certain neurostimulator analysis and programming services. Since the beginning of the PHE,... READ MORE

On July 16, 2020, Blackbaud, a software company that serves nonprofit organizations, began notifying its clients of a May 2020 ransomware attack that potentially compromised individually identifiable information of individuals related to those clients. We are working with multiple clients on this matter, most of whom utilized Blackbaud in relation to their charitable foundations.... READ MORE

A pair of final rules were published May 1, 2020, by HHS. The first rule issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (“ONC”) relates to the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking provisions and the ONC Health IT certification program (“Info Blocking Regulations”). The second rule issued by CMS relates... READ MORE

Recently, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) into law. Among many changes is a significant modification to the federal confidentiality protections currently afforded substance use disorder (“SUD”) records pursuant to the Public Health Services Act at 42 U.S.C. 290dd-2 (“PHS Act”). Most notable, the amendments to the... READ MORE