Alert
Published 10/12/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
On October 7, 2020, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it had settled its eighth enforcement action as part of its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). The Initiative was announced in 2019 as OCR seeks to ensure individuals can easily and timely access their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. In September 2020 OCR settled five investigations with five different providers under the Initiative. Dignity Health d/b/a...
Article
Published 10/12/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/12/2020
By Mark Miller, Dennis Brennan
Services Corporate
The U.S. Small Business Association (the “SBA”) released on October 2, 2020 a Procedural Notice providing guidance as to a change of ownership of companies (a “PPP Borrower”) which received a loan (a “PPP Loan”) through the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”). This guidance addresses some of the uncertainty as to how a PPP Borrower should proceed when there is a contemplated change of ownership, whether through a sale of equity or assets or a merger. This Alert confirms the importance of considering the effect of a PPP Loan when planning a transaction involving a PPP Loan. WHEN DOES A...
Blog Post
Published 10/12/2020
By Stephanie L. Denker
Article
Published 10/09/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/08/2020
By Bruce Armon, Allison Burdette, Samantha Gross
Industries Health Care
Services White Collar and Government Enforcement
On September 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Lakeway Regional Medical Center LLC (LRMC) in Texas agreed to pay $13,580,822.79, and Surgical Development Partners LLC, Surgical Development Partners of Austin Enterprises LLC, and several individuals collectively agreed to pay $1.8 million, to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act and other statutes in connection with the development and operation of a hospital in Lakeway, Texas. [1] The other settling parties supported the development of the hospital and provided management and operational services...
Alert
Published 10/08/2020
By Laurie A. Kamaiko, Joseph A. Valenti, Christie R. McGuinness
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy | White Collar and Government Enforcement
Companies that make or facilitate ransomware payments were given a strong reminder of their due-diligence and compliance obligations by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). OFAC’s recent October 1, 2020 advisory (the “Advisory”) noted that all entities involved in the chain of facilitating ransomware payments—from victim companies, company executives/employees, forensic vendors, incident-response firms that advise victims, cyber insurers that insure such payments, and the financial institutions [1] (including cryptocurrency exchanges and money-...
Article
Published 10/08/2020
Industries Cannabis Law | Food, Beverage and Agribusiness
Article
Published 10/06/2020
Services Labor and Employment
Article
Published 10/05/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/02/2020
This month’s Friday Five discusses cases that explore some fundamental principles of disability benefit litigation. While players and fans return to the favorite fall pastime of football, albeit in the “new normal” under COVID-19 limitations, a constant focus in that sport is always on basic blocking and tackling. So too, claims administrators must focus on fundamental concepts for navigating disability claims, such as the appropriate standard of review and essential elements of an administrative record. The Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr Employee Benefits/ERISA Litigation Team October 2,...
Article
Published 10/01/2020
Services Labor and Employment
Article
Published 09/29/2020
Alert
Published 09/29/2020
Industries Health Care
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
On September 25, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a press release announcing that Premera Blue Cross (Premera) had agreed to pay $6,850,000 and implement a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules. The Premera settlement is the second largest payment to resolve a HIPAA investigation in OCR’s history, trailing Anthem’s 2018 agreement to pay a $16 million to settle alleged violations resulting from a...
Article
Published 09/28/2020
Alert
Published 09/25/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
On September 23, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that CHSPSC LLC, (CHSPSC) agreed to pay $2,300,000 and adopt a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules. The potential violations were related to a data breach that affected the protected health information (PHI) of more than six million individuals. This is the second OCR settlement announced this week related to a hacking incident. CHSPSC is a...