The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Office for Civil Rights, disclosed Monday the formation of new divisions aimed at reducing the caseload of healthcare investigations. The office is reorganizing to more quickly investigate complaints.
“OCR’s caseload has multiplied in recent years, increasing to over 51,000 complaints in 2022 — an increase of 69% between 2017 and 2022 — with 27% alleged violations of civil rights, 7% alleged violations of conscience/religious freedom and 66% alleged violations of health information privacy and security laws,” OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer said in statement Monday. “Today’s reorganization improves OCR’s ability to effectively respond to complaints, puts OCR in line with its peers’ structure and moves OCR into the future.”
OCR enforces 55 civil rights, conscience and privacy statutes. Those include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009. OCR also investigates complaints, conducts compliance reviews, develops policy, promulgates regulations, provides technical assistance and educates the public about federal civil rights, privacy and conscience laws.
OCR will rename the Health Information Privacy Division the Health Information Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity Division to more accurately reflect its work and role in cybersecurity. Large breaches of unsecured protected health information reported to OCR increased from 663 in 2020 to 714 in 2021. (Large breaches are defined as those affecting 500 or more individuals.)
“This trend is continuing, and to date, hacking accounts for 80% of the large breaches OCR has received. HIPDC will continue to meet the growing demands to address health information privacy and cyber security concerns,” the agency said.
Meanwhile, the newly established Strategic Planning Division will coordinate public outreach on OCR’s authorities to protect civil rights, conscience, and health information privacy as well as expand data analytics and coordinate data collection across HHS leadership, the agency said.
“This structure will enable OCR staff to leverage its deep expertise and skills to ensure that we are protecting individuals under the range of federal laws that we are tasked with enforcing,” Fontes Rainer said.
