"Paradigm Shift: Don’t Expect A Small Penalty For A Small Breach"

July 31, 2016

News

Look out, business associates (BAs): The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is taking aggressive action against you for breach incidents. And the consequences are real — the OCR’s first resolution agreement with a BA well-exceeded a half-million dollars.

On June 30, OCR announced a $650,000 settlement with a BA for a data breach of PHI. Catholic Health Care Services of the Archdioceses of Philadelphia (CHCS) agreed to the hefty penalty to settle potential HIPAA violations including a breach.

“This settlement agreement sets an important milestone as OCR’s first resolution agreement with a BA,” notes attorney Rick Hindmand of Chicago-based McDonald Hopkins LLC. OCR is expanding its recent enforcement focus on BAs, following three resolution agreements with CEs within the last eight months for failure to enter into BA agreements (BAAs) with their BAs.

Click here for more of Rick Hindmand's quotes in the full article from Eli Healthcare.

Skilled nursing facilities will soon be required to significantly expand their reporting of ownership and control information on newly updated CMS-855A forms. Private equity companies and other organizations like real estate investment trusts have been named as one of the reasons that the expanded reporting for SNFs has been implemented. As such, these organizations should be aware that they may be a part of this reporting through a number of routes.

Over the past 24 months, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has brought notable enforcement efforts against several non-profit covered entities and business associates, resulting in instances of six and seven-figure penalties against providers across the county for incidents involving breaches of protected health information.

A new amendment to New York state law, which would have required all healthcare providers to obtain separate consents from patients for treatment and payment is on hold until further guidance is released, according to the New York Department of Health.

"Paradigm Shift: Don’t Expect A Small Penalty For A Small Breach"

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