Monitoring the Pulse of Health Care and Life Sciences
This post was authored by Roma Patel, Associate in Robinson+Cole’s Data Privacy + Cybersecurity Team.
We often cover consumer class action complaints against companies regarding the privacy and security of personal information. However, litigation can also arise from alleged breach of contract between two companies. This week, we will analyze a medical diagnostic testing…
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) was busy negotiating and settling enforcement actions in November and early December. Since October 31, 2024, the OCR has settled five separate cases of alleged HIPAA violations. The settlements include resolution agreements and civil monetary penalties.
One of the settlements and…
On October 22, 2024, Microsoft issued a threat trend research report entitled “US Healthcare at risk: Strengthening resilience against ransomware attacks.” In it, Microsoft declares that ransomware attacks against the healthcare sector are “emerging as one of the most significant” cybersecurity threats to healthcare organizations. The attack surface of hospitals “grows more complex” with digital…
According to the 2022 State of Ransomware Report issued recently by Sophos, it surveyed 5,600 IT professionals from 31 countries, including professionals in the health care sector. Those professionals in the health care sector shared that 66 percent of them had experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, which was an increase of 69 percent over 2020. This was the largest increase of all sectors surveyed.Continue Reading Privacy Tip – Health Care Sector Continues to Be Hit with Ransomware
On June 16, and then on July 6, 2021, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law a pair of bills that together address privacy and cybersecurity in the state. As cybersecurity risks continue to pose a significant threat to businesses and the integrity of private information, Connecticut joins other states in revisiting its data breach reporting laws to strengthen reporting requirements, and offer protection to businesses that have been the subject of a breach despite implementing cybersecurity safeguards from certain damages in resulting litigation.
Public Act 21-59 “An Act Concerning Data Privacy Breaches” (PA 21-59) modifies Connecticut law addressing data privacy breaches to expand the types of information that are protected in the event of a breach, to shorten the timeframe for reporting a breach, to clarify applicability of the law to anyone who owns, licenses, or maintains computerized data that includes “personal information,” and to create an exception for entities that report breaches in accordance with HIPAA. Public Act 21-119 “An Act Incentivizing the Adoption of Cybersecurity Standards for Businesses” (PA 21-119) correspondingly establishes statutory protection from punitive damages in a tort action alleging that inadequate cybersecurity controls resulted in a data breach against an entity covered by the law if the entity maintained a written cybersecurity program conforming to industry standards (as set forth in PA 21-119).
Both laws take effect October 1, 2021.
Continue Reading Connecticut Enacts Legislation to Incentivize Adoption of Cybersecurity Safeguards and Expand Breach Reporting Obligations
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced that it had entered into a Resolution Agreement, Corrective Action Plan, and settlement with Lifetime Healthcare, Inc., the parent of Excellus Health Plan, over alleged violations of HIPAA relating to a data breach that occurred from December 23, 2013 through May 11, 2015. During that time, a cybercriminal obtained access to its IT systems and installed malware that allowed the intruder to obtain access to the protected health information of more than 9.3 million individuals.
Continue Reading Excellus Health Plan Pays $5.1M to OCR in Settlement Following Data Breach
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
Health care providers and contractors continue to be a popular target for hackers. Recently, CHSPSC LLC (CHSPSC), which provides various services to hospitals and clinics indirectly owned by Community Health Systems, Inc. of Tennessee, agreed to pay $2,300,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in settlement of potential violations of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules. The OCR investigation and settlement stemmed from a data breach affecting over six million people.
Continue Reading HIPAA Business Associate Pays $2.3 Million Settlement After Hackers Target PHI of Over 6 Million Individuals
As readers of this blog know, data breaches in the health care industry are all too common. Health care organizations are an attractive target for hackers because of the nature and amount of personal information that they possess.
Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that healthcare organizations have the highest costs associated with data breaches.…
On October 1, 2018, a number of new laws affecting health care entities in Connecticut became effective. Below please find a brief description of some of the newly-effective provisions, as well as links to our analyses of the changes.
Continue Reading Laws Affecting Health Care Entities in Connecticut Take Effect October 1, 2018
