HIPAA Privacy Rule 2.0

On January 25, 2013, the Federal Register published the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) omnibus amendments to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules. These modifications also include the final versions of the HIPAA regulation amendments mandated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Although the amended rules were effective on March 26, 2013, covered entities and their business associates (which now have direct liability for violations of the regulations) have a compliance date of September 23, 2013.It has been 10 years since the April 14, 2003 compliance date for the original HIPAA Privacy Rule. Despite HHS’ clarification of some issues by posting answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), there have been no significant amendments to the Privacy Rule since 2003.