Category Archives: Healthcare Privacy (HIPAA)

OCR Settles HIPAA Security Rule Enforcement Action with Heritage Valley Health System Stemming from Ransomware Attack

On July 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with Heritage Valley Health System (Heritage Valley), a healthcare provider operating in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. This is the OCR’s third ransomware settlement and is based on allegations of potential violations of the Health …

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How to Implement Cybersecurity Insurance for Small and Medium/Large Organizations – HHS 405(d) Resource

HHS 405(d) is an excellent resource that provides cybersecurity and cyber risk guidance for not only healthcare organizations, but all organizations. HHS 405(d) released the following resource for cyber insurance. Before getting to the resource, however, there are two critical things you must know about cyber insurance: Your organization must have it. For incident response …

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HHS Releases HPH Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide to Help Healthcare Organizations Leverage NIST Cybersecurity Framework

On March 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its HPH Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide (the Guide) to help healthcare organizations leverage the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. This Guide is not only a must-read for all healthcare “covered entities,” especially small and midsize organizations, but it is excellent advice for …

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Dental Practice Responses to Online Reviews Cost $23,000 Settlement with OCR for Impermissible Disclosure of PHI

On December 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights published a notice of a settlement with a dental practice over disclosures of patients’ protected health information over social media. Here is the full version reproduced below: Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2022Subject: HHS Civil Rights Office Enters Settlement with …

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OCR Releases Video Guidance on Recognized Security Practices for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

On October 31, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights provided guidance titled OCR Releases New Recognized Security Practices Video. This guidance is not only a must-read for all healthcare “covered entities,” especially small and midsize organizations, but it is excellent advice for all organizations — healthcare and non-healthcare …

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OCR Guidance on HIPAA Security Rule Security Incident Procedures for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

On October 25, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights in its October 2022 OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter provided guidance titled HIPAA Security Rule Security Incident Procedures. This guidance is not only a must-read for all healthcare “covered entities,” especially small and midsize organizations, but it is excellent advice for …

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Not all HIPAA privacy “breaches” are caused by “hackers” — dentist gets $50k penalty for responding to patient’s Google review

When thinking of HIPAA data breaches, most of us tend to think of situations where the hackers engage in malicious activities against hospitals and steal troves of patients’ protected health information (PHI). There are, however, other much simpler kinds of HIPAA privacy breaches that are easily avoidable and can be quite costly to the healthcare …

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ASPR Warns Ransomware Threat is Persistent, as Actors Leak More Data

“In general, maintaining anti-ransomware best practices like the 3-2-1 backup system or conducting regular vulnerability scanning to identify and address vulnerabilities will help protect your organization against future threats from other ransomware operators,” according to the alert. — Read on healthitsecurity-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/healthitsecurity.com/news/amp/aspr-warns-ransomware-threat-is-persistent-as-actors-leak-more-data

Why did Lifespan Health face such a stiff HIPAA penalty for a stolen laptop? (publication)

Many thanks to HealthcareITNews for publishing my recent article Why did Lifespan Health face such a stiff HIPAA penalty for a stolen laptop? HHS is trying to get companies to comply with the law and, more broadly, their obligation to protect the sensitive information that people have entrusted to them. We have handled numerous cases …

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Healthcare Providers – Are You Prepared for Hackers to Tell Your Patients About Your Ransomware and Data Breach?

If you are a healthcare provider, you need to prepare yourself now for the new reality that, when hackers get into your network, they will contact your patients to put pressure on you to pay their ransom demands — usually after they have encrypted your network. Here is an example from a recent case that …

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