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New Enforcement Rules
Federal Register: October 30, 2009 [Volume 74, Number 209]
Rules and Regulations – Page 56123-56131
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
DOCID: fr30oc09-12
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Office of the Secretary
45 CFR Part-160 [RIN 0991-AB55]
HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Enforcement
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.
ACTION: Interim final rule; request for comments
SUMMARY:
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopts this interim final rule to conform the enforcement regulations promulgated under the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to the effective statutory revisions made pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the HITECH Act), which was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
More specifically, this interim final rule amends HIPAA’s enforcement regulations, as they relate to the imposition of civil money penalties, to incorporate the HITECH Act’s categories of violations, tiered ranges of civil money penalty amounts, and revised limitations on the Secretary’s authority to impose civil money penalties for established violations of HIPAA’s Administrative Simplification rules (HIPAA rules). This interim final rule does not make amendments with respect to those enforcement provisions of the HITECH Act that are not yet effective under the applicable statutory provisions. Such amendments will be subject to forthcoming rulemaking(s).
Assessment
Link: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-26203.htm
Conclusion
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Filed under: Information Technology, Practice Management | Tagged: ARRA, HHS, HIPAA, HITECH |
The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants 
Around 2004, it was determined that transmission of paper records is not covered by the HIPAA Rule. That was when the free market for dentistry slipped between the fat fingers of HIT stakeholders who now have physicians trapped and squeezed. Low tech pegboards, carbon paper and Mr. Postman are looking better all the time.
Today, Neil Versel posted “Federal workgroup wants encryption even for direct HIE.”
http://www.fierceemr.com/story/federal-workgroup-wants-encryption-even-direct-hie/2010-05-27#ixzz0p9f4O9Ef
As long as there is nothing holding down the cost for a dentist to be HIPAA-compliant, the free market will increasingly cause dentists to re-adopt 1950’s Healthcare Information Technology to be able to sell dentistry for a lower price and more profit than paperless practices. It’s best for almost everyone when the free market corrects bone-headed ideas like eDRs that contain patient identifiers. Encryption is not enough.
Young dentists may not realize that articulating paper was not invented by Dr. Carbon, as rumored.
D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS
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‘Subcontractors’ May Have to Comply With HIPAA
On July 14th, HHS’s proposed rulemaking board went beyond language contained in the original HITECH Act, according to some experts. This occurred by including the term “subcontractors” in the list of organizations that would have to comply with the same privacy and security regulations as business associates.
These subcontractors are one tier further down on the chain of those who handle protected health information. Subcontractors are akin to business associates [BAs]
And so, whether it is necessary to include them in the HIPAA regulations can be debated, and it remains to be seen whether they make it into the final rule. But for now, the concept is giving BAs and the HIPAA experts a huge headache.
Source: Report on Patient Privacy [8/9/10]
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HIPAA UPDATE
[OCR Officials Send Clear Message on Internal Privacy Audits]
In case the $5.3 million in penalties it assessed less than two months ago wasn’t strong enough, officials with the HHS Office for Civil Rights had a “clear message” for covered entities and business associates attending the 19th national HIPAA Summit in Washington, D.C.
“In light of OCR’s clearly articulated intention to aggressively enforce the HIPAA privacy and security rules, covered entities and their business associates should review their current HIPAA compliance programs,” Valerie Morgan-Alston, deputy director of enforcement and regional operations, said at the Summit.
“CEs should be training their employees that compliance is as essential as patient safety,” she said. “Policies and procedures can’t be something just sitting in notebooks on shelves gathering dust. They must be an everyday part of an organization’s culture.” Alston tried to hammer home the need for audits, saying, “CEs must conduct regular internal audits to find non-compliance themselves rather than waiting for complaints and OCR to come in.”
Source: Nina Youngstrom, AIS Health [4/6/11]
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Doctors don’t need your Social Security number
Lots of businesses, offices and schools ask you to provide a Social Security number when they don’t need it.
http://money.msn.com/credit-rating/article.aspx?post=b1d48950-0215-475f-8ff2-15b0e6be9e5a
Handing it over could expose you to identity theft.
Caleb
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