ABSTRACT
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is the enforcement arm of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) when it comes to compliance over Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Clinical and Economic Health (HITECH), and breach notification as well as receiving/ investigating complaints over privacy/security violations related to these regulations. The OCR can levy fines (or what they term civil money penalty [CMP]) and turn over cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal actions.
