The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services announces its fourteenth settlement of an enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. OCR announced this initiative as an enforcement priority in 2019 to support individuals’ right to timely access their health records at a reasonable cost under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Banner Health, on behalf of the Banner Health affiliated covered entities (Banner Health ACE), has agreed to take corrective actions and pay $200,000 to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s right of access standard. Banner Health is a non-profit health system based in Phoenix, Arizona. Banner Health operates 30 hospitals and numerous primary care, urgent care, and specialty care facilities and is one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States.
