HIPAA Enforcement Agency Announces Restructuring
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the main enforcer of HIPAA compliance, has undergone a restructuring. The agency has been split into three divisions, each of which has been assigned different areas of responsibility.
The restructuring will see OCR return to a program-based model through the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, Civil Rights Division, and Health Information Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity Division. OCR’s enforcement division will continue to handle the intake and processing of complaints and the review of healthcare data breaches, explained OCR in the announcement. OCR also confirmed that the restructuring will not have an impact on current staffing levels.
The first Trump administration established the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in 2018; however, it was disbanded by the Biden administration in March 2023, and along with the Civil Rights Division was incorporated into OCR’s Policy Division. The new structure will help to ensure that all areas of OCR’s workload receive the resources they need and benefit from senior executive leadership.
“This reorganization restores the HHS Civil Rights Division and the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division and strengthens the Office for Civil Rights’ ability to defend religious liberty, enforce conscience protections, and combat unlawful discrimination,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Under President Trump’s leadership, HHS will defend these rights with clarity, accountability, and resolve.”
Under the new structure, OCR believes that it will improve the effectiveness of its efforts to protect conscience rights, address race-based discrimination in a color-blind manner, restore biological truth, and eradicate antisemitism and anti-Christian bias.
“This reorganization reinstitutes a structure that rightly prioritizes civil rights and conscience and religious freedom alongside health information privacy and security,” said OCR Director Paula M. Stannard. “All three areas are deserving of subject-matter expertise and distinct senior executive leadership for OCR to best serve the American people.” OCR said further information about the new structure will be published in the Federal Register later this month.
