In light of today being the implementation date of the HIPAA Final Rule on Privacy and Security, Government Health IT reports on four steps that business associates (BAs) need to take to comply with the update. For covered entities, the effects “are mostly incremental because the compliance structure remains unchanged,” but for BAs, the change “raises the risks of noncompliance to a new level because, for the first time, they face many of the same compliance requirements as their covered entities,” making them subject to government fines and civil penalties, the report states. Meanwhile, a new study reveals there is increasing confidence in cloud technology among healthcare policy decision-makers.
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