Articles and Blogs

Health care providers are increasingly relying on technology to market, communicate with and otherwise provide services to their community, such as information about services provided on the website, patient portals, check-in kiosks and mobile applications. In using technology to communicate with patients and the larger community, it is important to remember the importance of... READ MORE

The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that a health system in California (the “System”) was required to pay a $3 million fine and adopt an extensive corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The System operates several hospitals, including a rehabilitation hospital... READ MORE

A number of organizations, including many health care and financial organizations, nationwide have reported receiving emails that state that an explosive device has been brought into the recipient’s facility and will be detonated unless a ransom is paid in Bitcoin. Law enforcement authorities are investigating; however, at this point, no explosive devices have been... READ MORE

The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced on December 4, 2018 that a hospitalist group (“Group”) that works with hospitals and nursing homes to provide internal medicine physicians has agreed to pay $500,000 and adopt a corrective action plan to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance... READ MORE

The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), announced that a small professional association with three doctors and four locations (the “Practice”) has agreed to pay $125,000 and adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The... READ MORE

On October 15, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that it had reached a record $16 million settlement with Anthem arising out of alleged violations of the Privacy and Security Rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The settlement comes... READ MORE

The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) fined three separate hospitals a cumulative total of $999,000 to settle potential violations of HIPAA arising from allowing film crews on premises to film a reality television show without first obtaining patient authorizations. The OCR Resolution Agreement can be found here. Generally, a... READ MORE

Earlier this year, Hall Render attorneys Ammon Fillmore and Melissa Markey published a series of articles with Becker’s Hospital Review on blockchain technology and its impact, potential benefits and challenges within health care. Blockchain Technology: Building Trust in the Supply Chain In this article, learn what blockchain is, how it relates to cryptocurrency and... READ MORE

On January 3, 2018, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued final regulations (“Final Rule“)[i] intended to update and modernize the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2 (“Part 2“).[ii]... READ MORE

As hospitals and health-related entities, like other businesses, continue to shift application hosting and data storage to the cloud and to third party data centers, they should consider what obligations to place on vendors that provide such hosting and data storage services to promote data security. One such obligation may be to require hosting... READ MORE