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Linn Freedman is chair of the firm’s Data Privacy + Security Team. She is also an active member of firm’s Health Law Group, education practice, Environmental + Utilities Group, Insurance + Reinsurance Group, and Business Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on data privacy and security law, responses to data breaches, compliance with federal and state privacy and security laws, breach notification laws, and assisting clients with regulatory investigations.

Ms. Freedman is experienced in providing counsel to health care organizations, Regional Health Information Organizations, and privacy and security issues related to interoperability of electronic health records. She has litigated complex cases, including privacy cases, and class action data breach litigation in state, federal, and appellate courts, government investigations, and serves as general counsel of the Rhode Island Quality Institute. Read her full rc.com bio here.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently settled a tenth case under its right-to-access initiative with California-based Riverside Psychiatric Medical Group (RPMG), for $25,000.

Although a relatively small settlement in the amount paid, it shows that the OCR is taking patients’ requests for access to their medical records seriously, and that no complaint is too small to investigate and enforce.
Continue Reading OCR’s Tenth Right to Access Settlement Is Small but Meaningful

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a press release on November 12, 2020, announcing that it had settled its eleventh enforcement action in its HIPAA Right-of-Access Initiative. The settlement with Dr. Rajendra Bhayani, an otolaryngologist (ENT) practicing in Regal Park, New York, included a payment of $15,000, a corrective action plan and two years of monitoring by the OCR.
Continue Reading OCR Settles Another Right-of-Access Initiative Case

New Jersey Attorney General (AG) Gurbir S. Grewal announced on November 2, 2020, that his office has settled with ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern Food Corp. (Wakefern) and two of its supermarket entities for $235,000 for a data breach that occurred in 2016.

According to the press release, the AG alleged that Wakefern violated HIPAA and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) by “failing to properly dispose of electronic devices used to collect the signatures and purchase information of pharmacy customers” in its Kingston and Millville ShopRite stores.
Continue Reading ShopRite Settles with New Jersey AG for Data Breach

On October 27, 2020, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned the health care industry about “an imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.”

According to the warning, which was shared during a conference call, the government has received “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.” The information was being shared with participants so that they can take timely precautions to protect their networks from the threat.
Continue Reading Warning to Hospitals of Imminent Threat Released by U.S. Government

Continuing with its previous enforcement actions centered on covered entities’ failure to provide patients with access to their health records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on October 9, 2020 that it entered into a settlement with Dignity Health, doing business as St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix (St. Joseph’s) for $160,000 for failing to respond to multiple requests of a mother for her son’s records.
Continue Reading Dignity Health Settles with OCR for $160,000 for Failing to Provide Access to Records

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced yesterday that it has settled five investigations in its HIPAA Rights to Access Initiative (Initiative), which it announced would be an enforcement priority for it starting in 2019. The Initiative is “to support individuals’ right to timely access to their health records at a reasonable cost under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.”

The addition of the five recent settlements brings the total to seven for OCR’s enforcement of the Initiative. The OCR’s press release states that the recent settlement involve five entities: Housing Works, Inc., All Inclusive Medical Services, Inc., Beth Israel Lahey Health Behavioral Sciences and King MD.
Continue Reading OCR Settles Five Investigations Under Right of Access Initiative

These days, news stations are frequently running stories concerning people being treated for COVID-19, the providers working tirelessly to care for them, and politicians visiting health care facilities for a first-hand look at the crisis. In response to the media interest, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance on May 5, 2020 to healthcare providers answering the question “Does the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency alter the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s restrictions on disclosures of protected health information to the media?” The guidance reminds them “that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not permit them to give media and film crews access to facilities” in which patient health information may be accessible without the patients’ authorization. This includes any areas of the facility where patients’ protected health information (PHI) may be accessible in any form (e.g., written, electronic, oral, or other visual or audio form).

Continue Reading OCR Issues Guidance About Media Access to Health Care Facilities

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it has fined the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (TXHHS) $1.6 million for HIPAA violations. This is one of the few fines the OCR has levied against a state agency.

The fine centers around a data breach that TXHHS self-reported to the OCR in June 2015 regarding the personal health information (PHI) of 6,617 individuals that was viewed over the Internet. The information that was publicly accessible includes the individuals’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers and treatment information.
Continue Reading Texas Health and Human Services Fined $1.6 Million for HIPAA Violations

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