The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has adopted the final security standards for protecting individually identifiable health information when it is maintained or transmitted electronically, as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
The security standards will be published as a final rule in the February 20 Federal Register with an effective date of April 21, 2003. Most covered entities will have two full years -- until April 21, 2005 -- to comply with the standards; small health plans will have an additional year to comply, as specified in the HIPAA regulations.
Under the security standards, health insurers, healthcare providers, and healthcare clearinghouses must establish procedures and mechanisms to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (PHI). The rule requires covered entities to implement administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect electronic PHI.
The complete text of the final rule will be available at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersFebruary 14, 2003
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