Washington — The Office for Civil Rights released a statement April 3 warning of an individual posing as an OCR investigator. The imposter has been calling entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 in an attempt to get patient information.
The OCR statement provided recommendations on how to handle this situation. The OCR urges covered entities and business associates to alert their workforce members. They should also take action to verify that someone is an OCR investigator by asking for the investigator’s email address (a legitimate OCR email address will end in @hhs.gov), and asking for a confirming email from the OCR investigator’s @hhs.gov email address. Suspected incidents of individuals posing as federal law enforcement should be reported to the FBI.
Questions or concerns for the Office for Civil Rights can be emailed to OCRMAIL@hhs.gov.