“Much has changed in health
care since HIPAA was enacted over fifteen years ago,” said HHS Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius in the Department of Health and Human Services’
January 17th press release announcing the publication of the
long-awaited final omnibus rule with Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy,
Security, Enforcement and Breach Notification Rules under the Health
Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. “The new rule will help
protect patient privacy and safeguard patients’ health information in an
ever expanding digital age.”
The final omnibus rule will
go into effect on March 26, 2013. Covered entities such as anesthesia
and pain medicine practices and billing companies including ABC—and
their business associates—must be in compliance by September 23, 2013.
The final rule changes HIPAA in several important ways:
It toughens the definition and consequences of failure to notify affected parties of security and privacy breaches;It strengthens...
4279 Hits