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|
Date |
Update |
| June 21,
2002 |
According
to John Hoff, HHS deputy assistant secretary, The Department of Health
and Human Services will publish the new final privacy rule in August.
This will make the proposed modifications to the final privacy rule
effective. HHS officials recently said the
department expects that month to publish the final data security rule
along with proposed rules for a health plan identifier and claims
attachment standard. |
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|
| June 18,
2002 |
A federal
judge in Houston has dismissed a lawsuit to overturn federal medical
privacy regulations as unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by US
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons (AAPS) against HHS and Secretary Tommy Thompson. The judge
determined that the plaintiffs had not suffered actual or imminent
injury by enforcement of privacy regulations in health care. |
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|
| June 14,
2002 |
According
to Health Data Management, provider and payer organizations must
implement significant portions of the security rule--final or not--to
fully comply with the privacy rule, which has an April 14, 2003,
deadline. “You can have security without privacy, but you cannot have
privacy without security,” says Thomas Walsh, principal consultant at
CTG HealthCare Solutions, Cincinnati. “By default, you need some minimum
security in place by April.” Walsh spoke at the Healthcare Information
and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) inaugural Summer Conference
this week in Las Vegas. He gave attendees a HIPAA Security Readiness
checklist of 36 tasks, some of which should be completed now and others
which should be in progress. |
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| June 14,
2002 |
JCAHO
Will Not be a HIPAA Enforcer
Two common misconceptions concerning the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) were
clarified at the HIMSS' Summer Conference this week. Speaking at the
conference, Richard Croteau, M.D., executive director for strategic
initiatives at JCAHO, said that JCAHO will not enforce HIPAA
requirements, despite what some attorneys and consultants have been
purporting in recent years. "We will survey compliance with
accreditation standards, not HIPAA regulations." Another misconception,
according to Croteau, is that HIPAA and JCAHO requirements conflict with
each other. "There are no contradictions between HIPAA and JCAHO
standards," contends Croteau. |
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| June 7,
2002 |
HHS
Receives Thousands of Requests to Extend Compliance Deadline
According to AHANews, more than 13,000 companies
and organizations are seeking an additional year to comply with HHS'
rule on electronic data interchange, Elizabeth Holland of HHS' Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Service told a regulation compliance conference
this week. Affected entities have until Oct. 15 to submit a compliance
plan or ask for an extension under the Administrative Simplification
Compliance Act (ASCA). |
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| May 31,
2002 |
Three
HIPAA Regs Published Today
The following three HIPAA regulations were
published in the Federal Register today:
The concurrent comment periods for the NPRM's are
30 (as opposed to the usual 60) days. The initial compliance date for
the Employer Identifier will be approximately July 30, 2004 (July 30,
2005 for small health plans). |
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