Health Law

HIPAA faces the music: New OCR Guidance on the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Electronic Exchange of Health Information
HIPAA guidance for the world that followed HIPAA (finally): HIEs, PHRs, etc., and how they may be brought under the big tent of HIPAA.OCR release from late yesterday:The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)...

New Data Breach rules and preemption
Do the New Data Breach Rules Pre-Empt State Data Breach Laws? (And if so, partially or completely?) Excellent question and answer from Edward Shay of Post & Schell: In an exchange on the AHLA's HIT listserv this morning, hipaacrat Shay had the following to say (HITECH is the HIPAA portion of ARRA):"Yesterday on the HITECH Part I conference call, Dan Orenstein asked me if I thought that HITECH

HIPAA: Can you release medical information to family and friends
My favorite fellow HIPAA blogger, Jeff Drummond, over at the HIPAA Blog points out the Office for Civil Rights has issued new guidance for providers to follow when assessing whether or not they should provide protected health information (PHI) to the friends or family of a patient under HIPAA Privacy Rule 164...

HIPAA and FERPA
HIPAA and FERPA: One of the interesting boundaries of HIPAA is FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. HIPAA obviously restricts the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information or PHI, which is broadly described as any information about past, present or future health or medical conditions or the payment therefor...

HITECH Act part of stimulus package headed to President's desk: Steady, boys!
Some of us have now had a moment or two to read parts of the stimulus bill. One of the many stimuli included is the HITECH act, a $19 billion electronic health records funding provision...

New HIPAA Summit video - GLB and HIPAA
New Video Posted: this is a pretty cool feature. The National HIPAA Summit folks have loaded some of their presentations onto streaming video, so you can watch them from the comfort of your computer screen...

COBRA Continuation of Healthcare Coverage after Layoff
Pensions and Health Care Coverage for Dislocated Workers