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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to expand its presence into different businesses, including for-profit colleges. On April 17, 2024, the CFPB issued a consent order against a for-profit college for computer programming. According to the consent order, the school “offers training...
On April 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a final rule to support reproductive health care privacy (the “Reproductive Rule”). According to the HHS OCR press release, the Reproductive Rule, “is one of many actions taken by HHS...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") continues to be actively engaged in investigating and settling alleged HIPAA violations. In advance of Mother's Day, two decisions were announced for HIPAA-covered entities that allegedly did not provide...
With the recent emergence of Name Image Likeness ("NIL") compensation, alumni associations focused on raising funds to compensate student athletes have been on the rise. But alumni associations in some form or another have been around as long as some of the oldest colleges and universities in the...
On February 14, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued two reports to Congress as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The reports are helpful to health care providers (and all...
On February 20, 2024, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board . Coalition for TJ involves an admissions policy at a prestigious public magnet high school which has significantly impacted racial demography at the...
On February 16, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a final version of the cybersecurity resource guide (the “Guide”) with respect to the HIPAA Security Rule. As noted in the Guide’s abstract, “This publication provides...
On February 6, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a settlement with Montefiore Medical Center (“MMC”) for alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations and MMC agreed to pay $4.75 million and enter into a two-year corrective action plan (“CAP”) with OCR. MMC admitted no wrongdoing...
In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $480,000 settlement with a Louisiana medical group following a phishing incident. In 2021, the medical group filed a breach report with HHS stating that a hacker – through a...
On November 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced an $80,000 HIPAA settlement with Saint Joseph’s Medical Center (“SJMC”) in New York State. The settlement was the result of OCR’s investigation of SJMC after the Associated Press...
On Halloween, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $100,000 settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with Doctors’ Management Services (DMS), a Massachusetts medical management company that provides...
On August 24, 2023, the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights ("OCR" or the "Department") released a Dear Colleague Letter (the "DCL") regarding "Race and School Programming." This DCL, which surely appears to be a response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Students for Fair...
On August 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities. The DOJ Fact Sheet is at Fact Sheet: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on...
In an effort to combat discrimination and harassment based on caste, numerous colleges and universities have amended their nondiscrimination policies to explicitly prohibit misconduct based on caste. Institutions of higher education are joined in this effort by some states and municipalities...
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced two (2) different settlements, one with a HIPAA business associate for $350,000 and one with a HIPAA-covered entity pursuant to the OCR Right of Access Initiative for $15,000...
On January 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) published a letter and resolution agreement regarding a December 2020 complaint (OCR Complaint # 04-21-2060) filed against Troy University by a student alleging discrimination on the basis of pregnancy in...
On December 15, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles regional office determined that an unfair labor practice charge (ULP) alleging that student-athletes should be classified as employees has “merit.” The National College Players Association filed the ULP in February 2022 against...