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The changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, drafted as part of HHS' Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care initiative, aim to remove regulations that might impede communication and data exchange between provider organizations and health plans. The changes expand individuals' rights to access their own digital health information, boost information-sharing and case management, and enable greater family and caregiver involvement during emergencies or health crises.
The changes also offer more flexibilities for disclosures in situations such as opioid overdoses and the COVID-19 public health emergency, and the hope is that a streamlined new rule would reduce administrative burdens on HIPAA-covered entities while continuing to protect patient privacy.
OCR proposes amending the Privacy Rule to increase permissible disclosures of protected health information and improve care coordination and case management by “adding definitions for the terms electronic health record and personal health application.”.
Additionally, provisions relating to individuals' right of access would be modified in several ways, according to the NPRM:
The updated regs would also clarify the scope of permitted uses and disclosures for individual-level care coordination and case management. The goal is to expand the scope of cover entities' abilities to disclose PHI to “social services agencies, community-based organizations, home.
In January 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) proposed new changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule in the first major update since 2013. The changes affect many aspects of accessing and sharing patent information, as well as codify recent court decisions and guidance. Many of the changes are subtle but essential to ease the proper flow of health information in today’s interconnected, multi-provider healthcare provision environment. In addition, there are many changes to details of the rules, intended to reduce the regulatory burden, such as the elimination of the requirement to get an acknowledgment of receipt of the notice of privacy practices when working with a new patient.
If you work in any of the affected areas of your organization, from health information management to the front desk, you need to be aware of these changes to ensure compliance and avoid penalties for violations that can be in the millions of dollars. This session will review the new rule and show what needs to be considered in order to stay compliant as it is adopted.
Jim Sheldon-Dean is the founder and director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm founded in 1982, providing information privacy and security regulatory compliance services to a wide variety of health care entities. He is a frequent speaker regarding HIPAA, including speaking engagements at numerous regional and national healthcare association conferences and conventions and the annual NIST/OCR HIPAA Security Conference. Sheldon-Dean has more than 16 years of experience specializing in HIPAA compliance, more than 34 years of experience in policy analysis and implementation, business process analysis, information systems and software development, and 8 years of experience doing hands-on medical work as a Vermont certified volunteer emergency medical technician. Sheldon-Dean received his B.S. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Vermont and his master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.