The HITECH Act is Coming! Covered Entities Beware...
The HITECH Act was signed by President Obama on February 17, 2009, coincident with the ARRA law. Most of the HITECH provisions go into effect on February 17, 2010, and HITECH makes significant changes to the HIPAA laws and rules, many of which will significantly impact the relationships between group health plans (and other “covered entities”) and their Business Associates. HITECH adopts a number of changes to HIPAA to significantly broaden the definition of a breach of Protected Health Information (PHI), defines what needs to be done when breaches of PHI occur, and for the first time impose some mind-boggling penalties for breaches of PHI.
Read the rest of this entry