OCR Senior Privacy & Security Expert Joins CynergisTek to Enhance Core Expertise in Healthcare Data Protection
CynergisTek welcomes David Holtzman, industry veteran, author and highly-regarded thought leader, will join its Compliance Services executive team as vice president of privacy and security. In this role, Holtzman will compliment CynergisTek’s leadership in healthcare privacy and security with his government and private sector expertise, enhancing the company’s position as the premier provider of enterprise privacy and security solutions and services for healthcare organizations.
Holtzman brings more than 10 years of experience in developing, implementing and evaluating health information privacy and information security programs to his role at CynergisTek, most recently serving as senior health IT and privacy advisor at the Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (HHS/OCR). During his time with OCR he led many initiatives, including the effort to integrate the administration and enforcement program of the HIPAA Security Rule. Prior to HHS/OCR, Holtzman served as the privacy and security officer for Kaiser Permanente’s Mid-Atlantic region, where he was the front-line leader responsible for developing and directing risk assessments for privacy and security compliance, prioritizing areas for assessment and audit, and developing and executing corrective plans for areas of noncompliance identified through risk based frameworks. Holtzman’s addition to CynergisTek’s executive leadership team exemplifies the company’s focus on privacy and security services, and will strengthen its footprint in the healthcare industry.
“Adding David Holtzman to our team and utilizing his unique expertise in the privacy and security space to deliver superior service to our clients is phenomenal,” said Mac McMillan, CEO, CynergisTek. “David’s HHS/OCR experience will bolster the support we’re able to provide our clients with privacy and security initiatives, OCR enforcement and audit response, which are all core and expected to be even more important in 2014 and beyond.”
The addition of Holtzman will enable CynergisTek to continue to provide the level of support and guidance healthcare organizations across the country need to effectively secure and protect patient health information and comply with complex HIPAA privacy and security rules. Holtzman will help round out a strong leadership team with deep expertise in technical security and auditing to provide a full compliment of solutions for clients. His contributions will also reinforce CynergisTek’s ability to support its commitment to industry thought leadership and education in healthcare privacy and security.
“The opportunity to reengage with healthcare provider organizations operationally on their mission-critical privacy and security initiatives with CynergisTek is very exciting,” said David Holtzman, vice president of privacy and security, CynergisTek. “My work over the years at OCR has been an invaluable experience, and I’m looking forward to being able to apply that knowledge, and helping to put real solutions in place to help these organizations tackle mounting regulatory requirements and achieve meaningful results.”
Holtzman is an accomplished and sought after public speaker to national audiences, exploring the state of health information privacy and security, information protection and responding to data breaches. He served as the co-chair of the NIST/OCR Health Information Security Assurance Conference from 2010 to 2013. Holtzman has also presented educational sessions to the HCCA Compliance Institute, HIMSS Annual Conference and IAPP Privacy Summit, as well as presented in numerous webinars and academic lectures.