Articles and Blogs

On March 28, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the resolution of two more complaints under its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the total number of cases to 27 since the initiative was first announced in 2019, with financial liability imposed on covered entities... READ MORE

The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement with a dental practice (“Practice”) which has agreed to pay $62,500 to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, as well as to take corrective action after impermissibly disclosing patient PHI to a political campaign manager... READ MORE

The Information Blocking Rule (45 CFR part 171) is only a month into effect, and improved access to medical records, particularly concurrent delivery of lab results to the provider and patient and increased access to provider notes through patient portals, already has led to scrutiny of accurate encounter notes and complicated patient satisfaction issues... READ MORE

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

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

Residential treatment facilities that provide substance use disorder (“SUD”) or other sensitive health services, such as mental health, behavioral health or developmental disability diagnosis and treatment, are again faced with a dilemma this year: do they provide patient information to the U.S. Census Bureau (the “Bureau”) enumerators to comply with the 2020 Census group... READ MORE

Tuesday, May 5 Recap Note – ​We believe this is the most up-to-date information available at this time, but it is subject to change ​as circumstances warrant. Also, all finalized resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website.​ CMS Uploads New Medicare 1135 Waiver Document CMS issued a new document... 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

Tuesday, March 24 Recap Note – ​We believe this is the most up-to-date information available at this time, but it is subject to change ​as circumstances warrant. Also, all finalized resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website.​ Congressional Outlook Negotiations in the Senate over the third stimulus bill continued... READ MORE