Understand Past HHS Settlements to Avoid Future Fines.

This year, the Federal government has gone a long way to loosen certain regulations, allowing healthcare providers to focus on the care of patients with COVID-19. While their leniency has been welcome, that doesn’t mean compliance programs are completely off the hook until this pandemic is over.

In fact, like any other year, there have been plenty of headline-making settlements. Why is that important? Well, around here we use government actions as a bellwether for future audits, enforcement, and fines. After all, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

To that end, we’ve rounded up some of the most newsworthy settlements of 2020, and government recommendations. By reading our latest eBrief, “Warning Signs: Takeaways from Recent OCR Settlements,” you’ll have a good idea of where the government’s enforcement strategies are focused, based on recent fines, including:

• Failure to Terminate Former Employee’s PHI Access
• $1,000,000 Fine for Three Breaches
• Right of Access Initiative