Health Law

New Enforcement Data Added to HHSs Web Site on HIPAA Privacy Compliance and Enforcement

By Helen Oscislawski

Last week, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) added a new data section on its Compliance and Enforcement Web Site.  The new section can be viewed at www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/enforcement/data.html.  The public can now access enhanced information about several aspects of OCR's enforcement program, including:

• Charts showing state-specific case investigation results;
• Calendar-year enforcement-results graphs and charts;
• Calendar-year graph showing complaint receipts; and
• Yearly variation in the issues in cases resolved through corrective action.

Below is a chart posted on OCR's new data section illustrating enforcement results for New Jersey:

 Another interesting chart lists the top five (5) types of complaints for each of the last five (5) years.  Worth noting is that between 2003-2007, the top 4 types of investigated complaints were the same, in the following order: 

• #1 - Impermissible Uses and Disclosures
• #2 - Safeguards
• #3 - Access
• #4 - Minimum Necessary

The last spot has changed from 2003 through 2007, with last year's number 5 spot being taken by "Notice" issues.

Full post as published by HIPAA Health Law & Technology on May 12, 2008 (boomark / email).