The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced a settlement with OSF Healthcare System and its Affiliated Covered Entities (OSF), concerning potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. OSF is headquartered in Illinois and has providers located in Illinois and Michigan. OCR enforces the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules , which set forth the requirements that covered entities (health plans, health care clearinghouses, and most health care providers), and business associates must follow to protect the privacy and security of PHI. The settlement resolves an investigation that OCR initiated after OSF filed a breach report in October 2021. In April of 2021, OSF discovered that its files had been infected with the “Nephilim” variant of ransomware. The PHI of 53,907 individuals was exfiltrated by the threat actor. Affected PHI included driver’s license numbers, diagnosis and treatment information, prescription information, medical record numbers, provider names, dates of services, financial account information, and
