HIPAA News from OCR: FAQs and Fines

In the past week, OCR has released two new issuances touching on HIPAA interpretation and enforcement. On the one hand, the regulated community eagerly awaits and devours these morsels as they are doled out. On the other hand, these particular morsels are unremarkable sub-regulatory issuances; one restates and interprets regulations in a manner that comes as no surprise to those of us immersed in HIPAA and the other announces an approach to exercising enforcement discretion that may well change again in the future.