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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...
It is rare for the Supreme Court to decide cases involving the Constitution’s Takings Clause, and, indeed, not uncommon for the Court to go years without considering the Clause at all; so, when the Court issues two decisions involving the Takings Clause in less than a week, attention must be paid...
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...
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 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 November 7, 2023, the City Council of Chicago approved a referendum that will put Chicago’s ‘mansion tax’ on the 2024 primary ballot on March 19, 2024. If passed, the measure would change the amount of real estate transfer taxes the City of Chicago imposes on commercial and residential properties...
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...
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 March 7, 2023 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (the “HUD”) Secretary, Marcia L. Fudge, issued a public memorandum (the “Memo”) expressing concern over a lack of transparency in fees charged to residential tenants. The Memo calls on housing providers and state and local...
On February 28, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking public comment on background screening issues affecting rental housing applicants and tenants in the United States. The 10-page RFI, which the...
On December 2, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (“ OCR ”) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“ SAMHSA ”) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“ HHS ”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ NPRM ”) to revise the Confidentiality of Substance Use...
On August 4, 2022, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”) filed suit against Monsanto Co., Pharmacia LLC and Solutia, Inc., seeking to hold them liable for PCB contamination throughout New Jersey. ( Complaint ). While the suit also addresses contamination at Monsanto’s...
New Castle County has announced that the firm conducting its countywide reassessment is now out in the field and inspecting properties, including commercial, office, and other non-residential properties. The goal is to inspect every property in the County. Most of these inspections will simply be...
New Jersey’s landmark Environmental Justice Law, N.J.S.A. 13:1D-157 (“EJ Law”), signed by Governor Murphy in September 2020, authorizes the NJDEP to deny or condition certain permits based on an assessment of a “facility’s” contribution to environmental and public health impacts in the State’s...
On June 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights issued guidance (the “Guidance”) for covered health care providers and health plans relating to the use of remote communication technologies to provide audio-only telehealth services in a manner that is...