Category: HHS Office for Civil Rights

The Regulatory Sprint Catches up to HIPAA: New Proposed HIPAA Rules

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) which proposes significant changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) and to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”) Privacy Rule (the “Privacy Rule”).  The NPRM includes...

2020’s a Bust, but HIPAA Enforcement Is on a Roll!

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been actively enforcing HIPAA regulations this year, including a series of seven settlements under OCR’s Right of Access Initiative to enforce patients’ rights to timely access their medical records at a reasonable cost. This year, OCR has recorded...

CMS “Actively Working” on Stark Law Reforms to be Issued Later this Year; “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care” Continues

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is “actively working” on updates to regulations under the federal physician self-referral law (or “Stark Law”), according to CMS Administrator Seema Verma during a March 4, 2019 speech. Verma stated that the updated regulations will be issued later this year, and “will represent the most significant changes...

How HHS’s New Division in the Office for Civil Rights Will Enforce Rights of Conscience and Religious Freedom

    When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), it framed a problem and a solution. The press release stated that “fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom” are not being fully enforced on...