Posts Tagged ‘HIPAA’
Medical Billing Company Owner Sentenced to 12 Years in Healthcare Insurance Fraud Scheme
A Long Island man who impersonated an NBA player and others to further his complex healthcare insurance fraud scheme has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $337 million and forfeit $63 million. Mathew James engaged in a years-long healthcare and insurance fraud scheme in which he and his…
Read MoreORC Report to Congress: HIPAA Complaints Skyrocket
Between 2017 and 2021, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) complaint violations rose 39 percent and large breaches reported increased 58 percent, according to a recent report from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to Congress. We have been writing about these complaints and settlements since 2019. OCR received 34,077 new HIPAAcomplaints alleging violations…
Read MoreFive More Targeted by Right of Access Initiative
As the year comes to an end, we thought we would revisit the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. It’s a subject we have covered during the past two years that can hit providers in their wallet. The Privacy Rule generally requires HIPAA covered entities (health plans and most healthcare providers) “to provide individuals, upon request,…
Read MoreOIG Work Plan Prioritizes Cybersecurity as Cases Rise
Last October, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)issued a joint cybersecurity advisory regarding ransomware activity targeting the healthcare and public health sector. In it, the agency said it had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals…
Read MoreAddiction Treatment Center Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach
A Pennsylvania addiction treatment center is the target of a class action lawsuit alleging that it not only failed to protect patients’ personal health information, but also that its “negligence and deceptive practices†resulted in the inappropriate access of information on nearly 8,000 people. The case is one of a growing number of class action…
Read MoreIf You’re Not Complying with Medical Record Requests, it Will Cost You
It was a little more than a year ago that we first wrote about how the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had begun to vigorously enforce HIPAA Privacy Rule’s right of access. It requires providers to give patients access to their health records upon request and…
Read MoreHHS Proposes Revisions to HIPAA Privacy Rule
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is seeking to revise the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a move it says will “remove barriers to coordinated care, and reduce regulatory burdens on the health care industry.†The proposed rule changes are part of HHS’ “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care.†Among some…
Read MoreRight of Access Violations Lead to Class Action
In recent weeks, we have been telling you about Office of Civil Rights (OCR) settlements relating to alleged violations of HIPAA’s Right of Access Initiative. The most recent settlements were announced on November 6 and November 12, bringing to 11, the number of settlements reached. OCR launched its Right of Access Initiative last year in…
Read MoreOCR Right of Access Initiative Heats up
More and more healthcare providers who fail to make it easy for patients to access their medical records are finding themselves in hot water with the HHS Office of Civil Rights. In just the last few weeks, OCR announced it had settled two more investigations into violations of the HIPAA requirement that patients be given…
Read MorePandemic Poses HIPAA Compliance Issues for Providers
You’re seeing a patient virtually via telemedicine when suddenly a family member walks into the room and can be seen going about their business, picking up laundry, getting keys to the car, grabbing a snack from the refrigerator, what have you. What to do? It’s a scenario that recently played out not once, but twice,…
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