HITECH Privacy Provisions Extend HIPAA Security Rule

Ed Jones gave a great synopsis of the impact of ARRA / Hitech as he noted when President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) on Tuesday, February 17, 2009. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provisions of ARRA in Title XIII include important changes in Privacy (Subtitle D). Our focus in this posting is the change related to business associates under HIPAA Administrative Simplification that is specified in Section 13401: Application of Security Provisions and Penalties to Business Associates of Covered Entities. In this section, administrative, physical, and technical safeguards, and policy, procedure, and documentation requirements of the HIPAA Administrative Simplification Security Rule “shall apply to a business associate of a covered entity in the same manner that such sections apply to the covered entity.

Related posts:

1. HITECH Privacy Provisions in ARRA
2. Identity Theft Red Flags for Medical Providers
3. Are the 26 Red Flags a Rx for Compliance?
4. ‘Red Flag’ Requirements for Financial Institutions and Creditors