New Head Chosen For HIPAA Enforcement
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Jocelyn Samuels has been chosen to replace Leon Rodriguez as director of the OCR.
The Office for Civil Rights, the Health and Human Services’ division responsible for enforcing HIPAA, is getting a new director after the official departure of Leon Rodriguez.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell sent out an internal email to staff on the appointment of Jocelyn Samuels as OCR director, replacing Leon Rodriguez, according to Gov Info Security. Rodriguez was officially confirmed by the Senate to serve as director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security June 24.
Samuels will be leaving her post as acting assistant attorney with the Department of Justice in the civil rights division, responsible for enforcing federal law pertaining to discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, and disability, to come to OCR.
Prior to her appointment at DOJ, Samuels served in the role of vice president for education and employment at the National Women's Law Center. She has also served as labor counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy and as senior policy attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She received her law degree from Columbia University.
"Leon is in the process of planning his departure, and we look forward to Jocelyn joining us here at OCR in the near future," an OCR spokeswoman tells Information Security Media Group. Dates for Rodriguez to leave OCR and for Samuels to join the agency were not disclosed.
In an email to HHS staff obtained by ISMG, secretary Burwell writes, "Jocelyn's wealth of experience and commitment to the mission of OCR will be great assets to her as she takes on this new role. I am looking forward to Jocelyn joining the team here at HHS in the near future."
Samuels will be in charge of HIPAA compliance and the official audit program scheduled to begin this year. These audits will include both desk audits, which officials anticipate will number between 150 and 200, and 50 on-site audits.
To date, OCR has levied $26 million in HIPAA settlements against entities found to have violated HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification rules. Just this June, the six-hospital Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, IN agreed to settle to the tune of $800,000 over an incident that involved dumping medical records unattended in a physician's driveway.