The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is developing guidance and a notice of proposed rulemaking on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, Thompson.com reports. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) held a two-day workshop recently to collect comments and recommendations on methods for de-identification of protected health information, mandated by Congress under last year's Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Speaking at the workshop, Susan McAndrew, deputy director of health information privacy at the OCR, said that there would be a need for changes over time to keep up with technology. "The future is now and it only took 10 years," she said. The OCR will accept written comments on proposed changes through March 12.
Full Story