Posts Tagged ‘HIPAA’

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently receiving public commentary on a proposed rule to expand the right of individuals to demand and receive "access reports" identifying who accessed their protected health information and why. Under the Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, individuals currently have a right to [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Office of Civil Rights (OCR), has awarded a $9-million contract to KPMG to help audit 150 covered entities and business associates for adherence to HIPAA security and privacy standards. According to language in the contract, "Site visits conducted as part of every audit would include [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is aiming to release its long-awaited (and consolidated) Final Rule on the HIPAA privacy and security rules by the end of 2011, it was announced by Susan McAndrew, deputy director in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The revamped regulations for the privacy and security rules [...]

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the unit of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for monitoring health information breaches, recently reported that the total number of Americans affected by large data breaches has surpassed 10 million individuals. With the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite a health industry outcry, has forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a proposed rule allowing patients to request information about the disclosure of their protected health information (PHI). An OMB review can take anywhere from one to 90 days to complete. After that, [...]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced dollar limits for tax-deferred retirement savings accounts for 2011, and, reflecting a flat cost-of-living index for 2010, has left those limits virtually unchanged for the new year. For instance, the limit for 401(k), 457(b) and 403(b) plans remains unchanged at $16,500, with health savings accounts (HSA) holding steady [...]

Though on Aug. 4 it withdrew its Interim Final Rule regarding HIPAA security breach notifications, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has since clarified on its Web site that the suspended rule of Sept. 23, 2009, remains in effect. "This is a complex issue and the Administration is committed to ensuring that individuals’ [...]

Coming under criticism for allowing covered entities (in this case, those health care providers and others who maintain health records) to police themselves in matters of maintaining the privacy of Protected Health Information (PHI), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has withdrawn its breach rule of September 2009. The already-in-effect interim final rule, [...]

There are some cautionary tales and lessons in the strange case of Huping Zhou, 47, who once worked for the UCLA Health System–until he was fired for poor performance–and who now finds himself facing hard time for HIPAA privacy violations. Here’s where it gets strange for both UCLA and the Chinese surgeon. First, UCLA gave [...]

Though HITECH (the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health act) took full effect this past Feb. 17, provisions regarding business associates were still vague, as we noted at the time. Now, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the law’s oversight agency, is promising to [...]