Stimulus Circus: Taming the HIPAAs and COBRAs – Practical Steps to Dealing with Regulatory Change

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "Act"), which contained several changes in health care, was passed in February 2009. This affects health care providers and businesses subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") because the Act contains new regulations that address the protection of medical records in electronic form. Newly defined terms such as "electronic health record" and "persona health record" are presented in the Act. Although providers have to comply with additional HIPAA obligations, the Act presents an opportunity to revisit old and outdated policies of data privacy and security. This article argues that it is necessary for employees to keep up-to-date on the policies and procedures of protecting HIPAA in the age of technology.

READ: Stimulus Circus: Taming the HIPAAs and COBRAs – Practical Steps to Dealing with Regulatory Change