Health Information Management

Digesting the HIPAA proposed rule: Part 1

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, July 26, 2010

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Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of items breaking down the HHS HIPAA proposed rule published in the Federal Register July 14.

The following items are courtesy of Rebecca Herold, CISSP, CIPP, CISM, CISA, FLMI, of Rebecca Herold & Associates, LLC, of Des Moines, IA. Herold will serve as one of the speakers of the HCPro, Inc. audio conference, “HIPAA’s New Proposed Rule: Prepare for Changes to Privacy, Security and Enforcement Regulations,” Tuesday, August 31:

  • HIPAA and HITECH apply to business associates (BAs). “Including clear indication that HIPAA and HITECH applies to BAs is a great idea,” Herold says. “I’ve spoken to many BAs who still believe that they only have to have the BA agreement in place, and I’ve had multiple covered entities (CEs) point out that the HHS has never explicitly stated that they needed to do more than provide a BA agreement for their BAs. If accepted and implemented as worded, the changes in the [proposed rule] make it much more clear that the CEs’ responsibilities must go beyond just having a BA agreement.”
  • New definition of “standard.” Herold says replacing “individually identifiable health information” with “protected health information” in the definition of “standard” is a strong idea. “This has always been a point of confusion for many or most CEs, and then last year for BAs.”
     



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