As you may know the ARRA government growth bill passed by President Obama earlier this year contains something called the HITECH Act that brings a whole new meaning to the word “HIPAA”. There’s a lot of mixed information about on the Web (no surprise) but I recently came across a page that lays out the essentials of the HITECH Act very clearly. Definitely worth checking out if your organization does business in/around the healthcare arena.
It’s funny – back when I started my consulting practice I thought HIPAA was going to be all the rage. Having co-authored a book on HIPAA compliance I have done quite a bit of work around it but nothing like I thought I would. I suspect that’s going to change. HITECH not only establishes some pretty sharp teeth for HIPAA but it also brings a whole new era of compliance for business associates. You know – the businesses that were “supposed” to comply with the HIPAA privacy and security rules to begin with. It was something mandated by contract in the original HIPAA legislation but we’ve seen how well that worked out.
Don’t get me started on risk management by contract…Someone signing a document promising to protect sensitive information is one thing but what takes place in the real world – that’s something completely different altogether!