by Margaret Young Levi and Kathie McDonald-McClure
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has a new acronym, “LoProCo,” relating to assessing data breaches under HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule that became effective March 26, 2013.
It is OCR’s position that a breach is Continue reading
by Ann F. Triebsch
(Updated January 27, 2013)
On January 17, 2013, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), released the final HIPAA Omnibus Rule (Omnibus Rule) implementing the HITECH Act of 2009 and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). The Omnibus Rule greatly enhances a patient’s privacy protections, provides individuals new rights to their health information, and strengthens the government’s enforcement capabilities. The regulations are published in the January 25, 2013 Federal Register, and will be effective on March 26, 2013, with compliance required by September 23, 2013.
We will discuss the highlights of the new regulations, topic by topic, in this blog over the next few weeks, but we begin with a key piece of information relevant to existing business associate agreements. The new regs substantially increase the privacy responsibilities of a business associate that receives protected health information, such as contractors and subcontractors. Business associates may also be liable for increased penalties for noncompliance based on the level of negligence, up to a maximum penalty of $1.5 million.
All of the new requirements will need to be reflected in business associate agreements (BAAs). If your current business associate agreement was signed on or before January 24, 2013, it will be deemed HIPAA compliant through September 23, 2014 (at which time the agreement will need to have been amended for compliance with the Omnibus Rule). After January 24, 2013, any new BAAs signed should comply with the Omnibus Rule, and be in place by September 23, 2013.
To read the Omnibus Rule, click here.
In our November 2011 blog post, we told you about the launch of HIPAA privacy and security audits mandated by Section 13411 of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). KMPG, Inc. was awarded the contract to develop the audit protocol and conduct these audits last fall and, on March 1, 2012, completed its initial group of 20 audits aimed at testing the audit protocol. The United States Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued a preliminary report of the results (click here to see OCR’s slide presentation of the 2012 HIPAA Privacy and Security Audits Report).
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) recently released a 47-page Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information. The Guide provides direction to providers on protecting patient privacy and securing their health information in an electronic health record (EHR) for purposes of complying with the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The Guide also addresses compliance with certain Meaningful Use (MU) standards that have been promulgated pursuant to the HITECH Act’s incentive program for adopting and implementing EHRs.
The deadline is quickly approaching for mandatory data breach reporting to the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). Covered entities must report data breaches involving less than 500 individuals to HHS within 60 days following the end of the calendar year in which the breach occurred. Because 2012 is a leap year, covered entities that experienced a data breach involving fewer than 500 individuals in 2011 should submit data breach notification reports to HHS by February 29, 2012.
The reports must be submitted electronically. Please follow these links for the submission form and reporting instructions.
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