In my How to Handle HIPAA and HITECH Act Breaches, Complaints, and Investigations: Everything You Need to Know, Overland Park, KS: Veterans Press (2011), with its Omnibus Rule supplement, I discuss how to respond to an Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) investigation of an alleged breach as a result of a complaint from a patient or other individual. And in my November 14, 2013, blog post, I discussed my successful defense of a covered entity in such an OCR investigation, which resulted in the complaint being dismissed and no adverse action taken against my client.
This experience and some other information that I have gathered have given me the idea to list possible defenses to such allegations in the event that, for whatever reason, you decide not to hire me to defend you. I have posted the possible defenses on our Premium Member section of our website. If you have your own attorney, this information may allow you to evaluate the attorney’s response, and if you don’t hire an attorney and prepare you own response, you will have some ideas.
You may want to print out these possible defenses and put them into Your Happy HIPAA Book in case you ever need them. Or better yet, just do everything that I recommend that you do in Your Happy HIPAA Book so that you will be less likely to ever need these possible defenses.
Again, as a reminder, if you bought the HIPAA Compliance Library that includes my 5th edition of the Compliance Guide to HIPAA and the DHHS Regulations, you received with it a one-year free subscription to the Premium Member section. If you need help setting up your account to access the Premium Member section, please call our marketing director, Patrick R. Head II, toll-free at 855-341-8783 or email him at patrick@veteranspress.com.
