Lawsuit for improper access to medical records faces many challenges

In a legal action noted by several privacy-minded observers, a woman in Cabell County, West Virginia filed suit in March against health care provider Marshall Health (the collective name for a group of clinical centers affiliated…

HIPAA “access report” potentially much simpler to implement, more valuable than accounting of disclosures

Among the provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act garnering significant attention are the changes to existing HIPAA requirements for covered entities to produce accounting of disclosures of protected health…

HHS releases new draft accounting of disclosure rules

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a long-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would implement the changes to accounting of disclosures requirements under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. HHS opened a 60-day comment…

HHS withdraws final health data breach notification rule for revision

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week that it has withdrawn the final version of its rule on Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information, which it had submitted to OMB for…

New HITECH privacy provision hints at adversarial relationship between individuals and health care plans

Among the privacy and security provisions mandated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act included in the new proposed rules issued last week by the Office of the National Coordinator is…

New proposed rules released on implementing more HITECH provisions

Today the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that it has completed its review of a set of proposed rules on implementing various privacy, security, and enforcement provisions of the the Health Information Technology for…

HITECH restrictions on sale of health record data constrain some EHR plans

As the provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act continue to be implemented, many health care organizations are beginning to understand that changes to security and privacy requirements originally promulgated…