On July 1, 2010 the Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the ”Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act”. This is the long awaited regulation that goes with the changes to the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Enforcement rules that were put into law by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and specifically the HITECH Act subsection. Many of these laws have already been put into place (several in February) such as HIPAA enforcement of Business Associates, and changes in patient restriction of disclosures of Personal Health Information (PHI).

These rules will provide more detail into how the laws are applied and should be followed. With the availability of these rules, THE Consortium will be planning a series of HIPAA update Webinars in the early fall. We expect the rules to be published in the Federal Register within the next two weeks, and will keep you posted. If you have any questions, feel free to contact David Ginsberg at dg@coruralhealth.org.