Organized Health Care Arrangement (OHCA)
Organized Health Care Arrangement
A clinically or operationally integrated arrangement among legally-separate covered entities that holds out joint services and treats joint operations as a single entity for some HIPAA purposes.
1 min read · Last reviewed May 23, 2026
At a glance
- Category
- Compliance Program
- Acronym for
- Organized Health Care Arrangement
- Primary sources
- 1
- Workspace handoff
- compliance binder →
Where this comes up
Compliance committees and practice managers operate at this level — written policy, workforce training, sanction policy, monitoring and auditing cadence, response and corrective action. The seven elements of an effective compliance program (OIG) are the scaffolding; this term lives somewhere on that scaffold.
Full definition
What it is in practice
45 CFR 160.103 defines five OHCA arrangements. The most common is a hospital with its medical staff. OHCA enables joint NPPs and joint operations.
How it shows up in your practice
Document the OHCA in writing. Misuse of the OHCA construct is an OCR finding.
Sources
- 45 CFR 160.103 — Definitionshttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-160.103
Document OHCA arrangements in the Compliance Binder
Open compliance binder →Related terms
- DocumentationJoint Notice (Privacy Practices)A single Notice of Privacy Practices used by multiple legally-separate covered entities operating as an Organized Health Care Arrangement.
- HIPAA & PrivacyCovered EntityA health plan, health care clearinghouse, or health care provider that transmits health information in electronic form in connection with a HIPAA transaction.
- HIPAA & PrivacyBusiness AssociateA person or entity that performs functions or activities on behalf of, or provides services to, a covered entity that involve the use or disclosure of PHI.
D3rx is a healthcare-billing and compliance research aid maintained by D3rx Inc. Articles are drafted by an LLM (Anthropic Claude) against primary HHS, OCR, CMS, eCFR, NIST, and state-regulator publications, and reviewed for restraint and source fidelity by the D3rx team.
Reviewer status: a named credentialed reviewer (CHC, CHPC, or healthcare attorney) is being engaged. Until that engagement is finalized, this page does not claim credentialed review.
Related across the archive
- GlossaryBusiness AssociateA person or entity that performs functions or activities on behalf of, or provides services to, a covered entity that involve the use or disclosure of PHI.
- GlossaryCovered EntityA health plan, health care clearinghouse, or health care provider that transmits health information in electronic form in connection with a HIPAA transaction.
- GlossaryJoint Notice (Privacy Practices)A single Notice of Privacy Practices used by multiple legally-separate covered entities operating as an Organized Health Care Arrangement.
- GlossaryClearinghouseAn entity that translates electronic transactions between providers and payers and applies front-end edits to reduce rejected claims.
- GlossaryePHI (Electronic Protected Health Information)PHI that is created, received, maintained, or transmitted in electronic form.
- GlossaryPHI (Protected Health Information)Individually identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form.
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This glossary entry is a research aid for billing and compliance staff. It does not provide legal, medical, or financial advice and does not replace counsel. References cited link to primary sources at HHS, OCR, CMS, eCFR, NIST, and the relevant payer or industry body.