Health Information Compliance Alert

You can expect big changes at the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The Department of Health and Human Services has finally announced a new director for the agency that governs HIPAA and individuals’ civil rights in the healthcare realm.

On Sept. 27, HHS revealed the appointment of Lisa J. Pino as OCR Director. Previously, Pino worked as a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) senior executive, SDA Deputy Administrator of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and USDA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Obama administration. She was most recently in charge of “New York’s operational response to COVID-19” as the New York State Department of Health’s Executive Deputy Commissioner, an HHS release indicates.

Pino’s “breadth of experience and management expertise, particularly her hand in advancing civil rights regulations and policy at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) during the Obama-Biden Administration, will help ensure that we protect the rights of every person across the country as we work to build a healthier America,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in an HHS release on the appointment.

Pino hails from New York, is the first-generation daughter of immigrants, and speaks Spanish fluently. She holds a BA, MA, and JD from Arizona State and was a National Hispana Leadership Institute Fellow in the Harvard Kennedy School leadership program.

Among her past career accomplishments, Pino worked as DHS Senior Counsel after the 2015 cyber breach that impacted the U.S and advocated for gender and minority rights while at USDA-OASCR.

Read the HHS announcement at www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/09/27/hhs-announces-lisa-j-pino-as-director-for-office-for-civil-rights.html.