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Subscribers to Report on Patient Privacy receive

  1. Report on Patient Privacy, AIS’s industry-leading monthly newsletter, a copy of which will be mailed to you and posted — along with searchable archives of past articles and a convenient library with PDFs of back issues — on the subscriber-only website.
  2. Access to the industry’s most exhaustive HIPAA privacy and security website, which features:
    • 31 detailed narrative sections of guidance written by experts on every HIPAA compliance topic from A to Z (see listing below). These exhaustive treatments are packed with sample forms, policies, procedures, decision trees and other practical tools you can adapt to your privacy and security compliance programs ... and it’s updated regularly.
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May 2013

Recent Stories of Interest

Harm Standard: Gone But Not Forgotten? New Factors Mimic Current Breach Regs

From Report on Patient Privacy - Although covered entities (CEs) have been required since 2009 to notify affected individuals and the government, when appropriate, of breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI), the so-called “harm” standard that triggers notice no longer exists under the new final regulations. Or does it? Are CEs really starting over when it comes to assessing whether an incident is a reportable breach under the final regulations issued on Jan. 25, which have a compliance deadline of Sept. 23? Read more

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While HITECH Regulation Is Done, OCR Is Nonetheless Charting a Busy Summer

Even though the Office for Civil Rights recently “birthed” its long-overdue baby,… Read more

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New Patients’ Access Rights Mean New Requirements, Including ‘Duty to Warn’

Covered entities (CEs) and the business associates (BAs) they may use to… Read more

Staff Retraining Is Necessary on PHI Disclosures Under the New Regulations

Family members and friends who have lost loved ones should have easier… Read more

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From the Editor

Welcome to your Report on Patient Privacy subscriber-only Web page

Be sure to visit often, for PDFs of issues, article archives, narrative sections by privacy and security experts, and more!

Please e-mail me with your comments on the last issue of Report on Patient Privacy, story ideas for future issues, or any other suggestions you have that can make the newsletter more useful for you.

RPP subscribers can now access an extensive report with all the details of the new HIPAA/HITECH regulations, prepared by RPP Editor Francie Fernald. This report summarizes the amendments to the regulatory language and highlights the clarifications that HHS discusses in the preamble to the rule. It has two parts:

  1. Revisions to the breach notification rules, and
  2. Revisions to the HIPAA privacy and security rules and the HHS OIG enforcement rules mandated by the HITECH Act.

Click here to read the report (PDF file).

April 24, 2013
HHS/OCR Seeks Comment on HIPAA ‘Express Permission’ to Report Individuals with Certain Mental Health Issues

The Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office for Civil Rights, is considering an amendment to HIPAA that would create an “express permission” in the HIPAA rules to allow certain covered entities to report individuals with mental health problems to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The initiative comes in response to the administration’s efforts to reduce gun violence.

Federal law currently includes a “mental health prohibitor,” which prohibits the following individuals from possessing or receiving firearms: those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity, or determined through a formal legal process to have a severe mental conditions creating a danger to themselves or others or to be incapable of managing their own affairs.

OCR is seeking public comment in an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, published on April 23, on how to resolve any barriers HIPAA may present for reporting this information to NICS and whether there are ways to mitigate any unintended adverse consequences for individual seeking needed mental health services if an express permission for the reporting is added to HIPAA. Comments are due by June 7, 2013.

April 9, 2013
CMS Proposes to Extend Stark Law Exception for EHRs

CMS on April 9 proposed to extend the Stark law exception for EHRs. http://tinyurl.com/d6benso

March 14, 2013
Dates for OCR Annual HIPAA Security Conference Announced

Mark your calendars. The Office for Civil Rights and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are presenting their 6th annual conference, Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security, on May 21 and 22 in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/2013-hipaa-conference.cfm.

Read more from the Editor
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Compliance With Security Breach Notification Rules
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