Lawyer: HITECH regs coming by July 8
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, June 28, 2010
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When will the HIPAA-related HITECH regulations hit the street?
Gerald DeLoss, of counsel with Krieg DeVault LLP in Indianapolis, IN, and a member of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group, predicts no later than July 8. DeLoss based his prediction on remarks made by David Mayer, senior advisor for HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement at OCR.
In an American Health Lawyers Association listserv e-mail, DeLoss wrote that during a conference this month, Mayer estimated OCR would release the proposed rules no later than July 8.
“As a bonus,” DeLoss writes in the e-mail, “[Mayer] also stated that the regs will not require an amendment to existing [Business Associate] Agreements (to incorporate the new requirements) but that there may be very good business reasons for a new or revised BA Agreement.”
A spokesperson for the OCR, in an e-mail to HIPAA Weekly Advisor, was not willing to verify that July 8 prediction.
“Mr. Mayer’s comments may have been taken out of context,” the OCR spokesperson wrote in the e-mail. “The department cannot predict [Office of Management and Budget’s] timeframe for publication. Further, the Office for Civil Rights at HHS cannot comment on the content of the [proposed rule] before it is published.”
On April 12, OCR sent proposed regulations amending the HIPAA Privacy Rule in accordance with the HITECH Act requirements to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review. That office is under the Office of Management and Budget.
Earlier this month, a consultant who attended the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA) annual conference this month, predicted OCR will release proposed rules around June 26.
After its sixth annual Academic Medical Center Conference in Chapel Hill, NC, Phyllis A. Patrick, MBA, FACHE, CHC, co-founder and managing director of AP Health Care Compliance Group, sent an e-mail to HIPAA Weekly Advisor that reported the HITECH regulations would be released in “about two weeks or around June 26th.”
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