On Monday, February 5, 2018, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) sent an e-mail blast regarding their new online form for businesses needing to report breaches under Chapter 93H of the Massachusetts General Laws. As of February 1, 2018, the AGO has a new online form that businesses may use for reporting such breaches in lieu of sending a paper letter or e-mail to the AGO; however the AGO still allows both those reporting methods. Using the new online form also allows the business notifying the AGO of the breach to attach additional documents to the notification, e.g. a sample of the breach notice sent to affected Massachusetts residents. While the AGO does not require businesses to use the new online form, it believes that the new form will be more useful and efficient. The new online form can be accessed from the AGO’s website here.  Additionally, in the coming weeks Massachusetts expects to launch a breach notification database, allowing persons to search breaches reported by businesses, when such breaches occurred and how many residents the breach affected.

It is worth noting that the United States Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights has a similar database for HIPAA breaches that affected over five hundred persons.  The Health Care community colloquially dubbed that database the “Wall of Shame.” We will wait and see if the Massachusetts database receives any nickname.

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Photo of Daniel J. Kagan Daniel J. Kagan

Dan Kagan is an Associate in the Health Care, Long Term Care and Privacy and Cybersecurity Groups. He represents hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, assisted living communities, CCRCs and other health care clients with a wide range of regulatory, compliance, risk management, transactional and…

Dan Kagan is an Associate in the Health Care, Long Term Care and Privacy and Cybersecurity Groups. He represents hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, assisted living communities, CCRCs and other health care clients with a wide range of regulatory, compliance, risk management, transactional and reimbursement issues.

With regard to Privacy and Cybersecurity, Dan has experience drafting privacy policies and notices, website terms of use, written information security plans and incident response plans.  Dan counsels clients on compliance issues related to state, federal and international privacy laws including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  Dan also has experience representing both health care and non-health care clients that have suffered data breaches and assists such clients with breach response and applicable reporting obligations.  Dan writes extensively on privacy and cybersecurity issues and is a co-editor of Murtha’s Privacy and Cybersecurity Perspectives blog.

As a member of the Health Care and Long Term Care groups, Dan has experience representing clients with HIPAA compliance, Stark and anti-kickback analyses, purchase and sale transactions, reviewing and drafting contracts, certificate of need requirements, rate appeals, Medicare and Medicaid audits, medical staff and credentialing matters, licensing and change of ownership proceedings.

Prior to joining Murtha Cullina, Dan clerked for the Honorable Lubbie Harper, Jr. and the Honorable Joseph H. Pellegrino of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Dan received his J.D. with honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law where he was a Notes and Comments Editor for the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from McGill University.