News

By Lynda M. Johnson, Timothy C. Ezell and Tonya S. Gierke Published in Arkansas Medical News (July/August) Ponemon Institute recently calculated the average cost of a healthcare data breach in 2017 to be $380 per record. In addition, the most recent enforcement data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) indicates that the OCR has settled or imposed Civil Monetary Penalties of nearly $79 million dollars since the enactment of HIPAA.

Attorney Daniel Herrington was an invited panelist at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Excel Training Conference that took place earlier this week in Washington, DC.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), healthcare workers are four times more likely to be a victim of workplace violence with nearly 75 percent of all reported workplace assaults occurring in the healthcare and social service settings.

Attorney Michelle Ator served as a faculty member in the recent American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) National Trial College that took place at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.

US corporations and farmers have cheered the more “business-friendly” approach recently adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but any relief they are experiencing will be short-lived if the plaintiff’s bar gets its way.

The November 2016 election is now about a year and a half in the past. In that election, Arkansas voters approved Amendment 98 to the Arkansas Constitution that permitted use of medical marijuana in certain instances.

By Allison C. Pearson On June 14, 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a press release stating that it had filed seven lawsuits against various employers across the country for harassment. The EEOC stated that the suits “should reinforce to employers that harassment — on all bases — is a violation of federal law.”