CMS Issues New and Updated HIPAA and HITECH Act FAQs: EHR Incentive Payment Start Dates

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) periodically issues new and updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). HIPAA.com will periodically reproduce new and updated Questions and Answers pertaining to HIPAA Administrative Simplification standards and implementation specifications and to HITECH Act provisions that will be of interest to its readers. This FAQ [ID#9807] was created on June 22, 2009, and updated by CMS on August 18, 2009.

CMS Issues New and Updated HIPAA and HITECH Act FAQs: EHR Incentives

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) periodically issues new and updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). HIPAA.com will periodically reproduce new and updated Questions and Answers pertaining to HIPAA Administrative Simplification standards and implementation specifications and to HITECH Act provisions that will be of interest to its readers. The FAQ that follows is new, published by CMS on August 13, 2009.

HHS Issues Interim Final Rule for HITECH ‘Breach Notification’

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has issued the Interim Final Rule for Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information. The Interim Final Rule was signed by Secretary Sebelius on August 6, 2009, filed at the Federal Register on Wednesday, August 19, 2009, and will be published on Monday, August 24, 2009, in the Federal Register. The effective date of the Interim Final Rule will be 30 days after publication, and will cover both covered entities and business associates of covered entities.

HHS Secretary Delegates to ONC Head New HITECH Act Authority

Effective August 7, 2009, and published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, August 18, 2009, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has delegated authority to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal, M.D., to administer “Subtitle B, ‘Incentives for the Use of health Information Technology,’ sections 3011 through 3017, with the exception of 3012(c)(5), the Financial Support subsection.”

HHS Secretary Sebelius Delegates Oversight and Enforcement of HIPAA Security Rule to OCR

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has delegated oversight and enforcement of the HIPAA Administrative Simplification Security Rule Standards for Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information to HHS’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), effective July 27, 2009. Since October 7, 2003, the Security Rule had been the responsibility of HHS’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). OCR also has responsibility for the HIPAA Administrative Simplification Privacy Rule.

What’s In Your Personal Health Record?

The 800-pound gorilla at the center of health information transformation is the patient. This sleeping giant is slowly emerging from hibernation, and watch out when it wakes up. Folded into the HITECH Act are provisions that require healthcare providers to provide patients with access to data, knowledge and tools.