New HIPPA/HHS Privacy Final Rule

On January 17, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the long-awaited omnibus final rule on HIPAA regulations. This Final Rule modifies certain aspects of the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Enforcement Rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information Rule (Breach Notification Rule) under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act).

Phew. We know that's a lot to process. You probably need to read over that information a couple of times before you even understand what it means. But then, we haven’t even said what it means yet. Why? Because we are not yet entirely sure of that ourselves either. The Final Rule document is about 600 pages of complex information. So bear with us – we can’t give you a one-page summary yet. But we want to tell you not to worry; not that much has changed.

EHR Incentive Program Timeline

Everyone involved in the EHR Incentive Program has been waiting for the day that the 2014 guidelines come out. That day has come and gone, but it has left many professionals still confused. Next week we will post a concrete document explaining very simply what the guidelines are for Meaningful Use Stage 2. But for now, we thought that you should take a look at this timeline to make sure you are on the right track…

And stay tuned for next week's blog post, it's going to be an important one! 

http://www.inforiainc.com/data/Unsorted/EHRIncentProgtimeline508V1-66073-1.pdf