OCR’s Iliana Peters has stepped in to replace Deven McGraw, Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in an interim role.
Peters will serve as Acting Deputy Director until a suitable replacement for McGraw can be identified. Peters has departed her role as senior advisor for HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement at OCR. There are no plans in place to bring in a replacement for McGraw as Acting Chief Privacy Officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). McGraw vacated the position as of October 19, 2017.
One of the first objectives for Peters will be to ensure the statutory obligations of the 21st Century Cures Act are adhered to, and to issue assistance for healthcare organizations and patients on health data access and guidance on the permitted uses and disclosures of protected health information for patients receiving treatment for mental health or substance use disorder.
McGraw was Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy since July 2015, replacing previous incumbent Susan McAndrew in the office. She joined OCR from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP where she co-chaired the company’s privacy and data security department. McGraw had served as Acting Chief Privacy Officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) since Lucia Savage left the role earlier this in 2017.
In July 2017, ONC National Coordinator Donald Rucker revealed that due to cuts to the ONC budget, the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer would be closed out, with the Chief Privacy Officer receiving only minimal support. It therefore seems the perfect time for Deven McGraw to move to a new career path.
McGraw, an expert in HIPAA and privacy laws, will be sorely missed at OCR. She revealed on Twitter, “The HIPAA team at OCR is in good hands with Iliana Peters as Acting Deputy.”
