HHS Announces Jocelyn Samuels as the New Director at the Office of Civil Rights
The Department of Health and Human Services has named Jocelyn Samuels as the new director at the Office of Civil Rights. Samuels takes over the position from the departing director, Leon Rodriguez.
The Office for Civil Rights recently sent an internal email to members of its staff to alert them to the appointment of a new director. Jocelyn Samuels has confirmed acceptance of the position, although a start date for the new director at the Office of Civil Rights has been announced. According to a statement issued by an OCR spokesperson, “Leon is in the process of planning his departure, and we look forward to Jocelyn joining us here at OCR in the near future.”
The outgoing director has been at the helm of the OCR for three years and during that time he has ushered in a number of changes that has helped get the OCR policing HIPAA more rigorously. Rodriguez played an important role in the development of the pilot audit program soon after he joined the department; however he felt it was time for a change and for new blood to come in to take over ahead of the second round of HIPAA compliance audits.
He will be leaving to take up a new role in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security, with the Senate recently having agreed on his appointment on June, 24.
The OCR staff was told of the experience the new director at the Office of Civil Rights brings to the position: “Jocelyn’s wealth of experience and commitment to the mission of OCR will be great assets to her as she takes on this new role. I am looking forward to Jocelyn joining the team here at HHS in the near future.”
Jocelyn Samuels is currently employed as acting assistant attorney general in the civil rights department, which is tasked with reducing discrimination on race, sex, gender and nationality. She has served as a senior policy attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a law clerk to a U.S. Court of Appeals judge (Ninth Circuit) and as senior policy attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as labor counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The new director at the Office of Civil Rights will be required to hit the ground running, as the second round of HIPAA compliance audits are scheduled to commence in the fall of this year. Rodriguez had a vision of a permanent audit program, and while he had played an important role in the pilot phase, it will be up to Samuels to make sure that the next – and much bigger – phase of audits runs smoothly. With a limited budget and lack of manpower she has a hard job on her hands.
The change in leadership suggests that the compliance audits may not start later this year as scheduled. Last month, Iliana Peters, the OCR’s senior adviser for HIPAA compliance and enforcement, said “We’re hopeful that our audits will begin, hopefully the end of this year, early next year.”