As covered on Reed Smith’s Life Sciences Legal Update blog, Affinity Health Plan, Inc. (Affinity) recently reached a $1.2 million settlement with the HHS Office for Civil Rights related to potential violations of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Affinity self-reported a breach after learning from a CBS Evening News investigative report that electronic protected health information (PHI) was stored on the hard drives of photocopiers formerly leased to Affinity. Since almost every business uses photocopiers, Affinity serves as a reminder that all covered entities and business associates should implement policies and procedures to ensure that all hard drives are scrubbed of PHI before leaving their possession.  For more information, please see the full post.