Member Article

Apparently, the OCR has a different concept of the holiday spirit than many others do. On December 22, OCR announced the 13th settlement agreement related to its Right of Access Initiative. This time, the provider settled for $36,000 and agreed to enter into a corrective action plan.

This latest matter involved Peter Wrobel, M.D., P.C., d/b/a Elite Primary Care ("Elite"). The situation follows a very familiar pattern: a patient requested records but did not receive them. As a result and in response to the patient’s HIPAA complaint, OCR provided Elite with certain “technical assistance” with respect to responding to patient requests. Apparently, Elite failed to follow with OCR’s guidance, which resulted in a second patient complaint. As part of the investigation, the patient received his records well over a year from the initial request.

Make no mistake: OCR is very serious about its enforcement of patients’ access rights, and failure to comply promptly and fully with OCR technical assistance and corrective actions will result in further enforcement. Indeed, efforts to expand and facilitate access rights are at the core of the OCR’s recently-proposed amendments to the HIPAA regulations, which are discussed here, and are directly related to the 21st Century Cures Act Information Blocking Rule.

For assistance with any HIPAA matters, including how to honor access requests and understanding the notice of proposed rulemaking, and HIPAA’s relationship to the Information Blocking Rule, please contact the authors.

Click here to read more.