To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: 2020 was an active year for HIPAA regulatory activity by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In this article, we take a look at some of the HIPAA highlights from 2020 and offer thoughts about potential compliance focus areas for 2021. HHS OCR Enforcement – Right of Access Initiative 2020 Highlights Amid a challenging year, OCR announced a record 19 HIPAA resolution agreements in 2020, the most HIPAA resolution agreements ever announced in one year. Notably, roughly two-thirds of those enforcement actions were brought pursuant to OCR’s HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). The remaining enforcement actions dealt with familiar privacy and security issues such as breaches of protected health information (PHI) and failure to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule requirements.