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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be convening
four National Conferences on the HIPAA Privacy Rule. These one-day
conferences will be held in San Diego, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago.
The conferences are designed to provide an unprecedented opportunity to
hear from and interact with officials who developed the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule and will be
responsible for interpreting and enforcing the rule. The HHS Office for
Civil Rights (OCR) will provide an expert faculty who will answer
questions from attendees during question and answer sessions following
their presentations.
What you will learn:
* The principles underlying the Privacy Rule.
* How the preemption rules create a national floor of privacy
protections
* Who is a covered health care provider
* The implications of being an affiliated covered entity, a hybrid, or
in an organized health care arrangement
* "Business associate" issues
* What type of information is protected under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and
what is meant by the terms "use", "disclosure",
"minimum necessary", and "incidental disclosures"
* The Notice of Privacy Practices requirement
* When it is necessary to obtain an authorization to use or disclose PHI
and what constitutes a valid authorization
* The right of patient to access, amend, and obtain an accounting of
disclosures of patient health information
* When to use an authorization for research and when research may be
conducted without an authorization
* How research authorizations pre-dating the compliance date are treated
* Appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards
* The requirements to train the workforce on covered entity policies and
procedures
* The OCR complaint investigation and compliance review authority
Registration:
Information on registration, including registration fees, for the
individual conferences can be found below. Please be advised that
seating is limited and early registration is advisable. If you need
reasonable accommodations because of a disability, such as conference
materials in alternative formats, sign language interpreters, etc.,
please contact
calise.munoz@hhs.gov <mailto:calise.munoz@hhs.gov>
at least 10 - 15 days before the conference.
San Diego, California - February 5, 2003 Co-sponsored with the
University of California
To register online, please click on the link below:
http://www.cvent.com/EventManagement/Summary/Summary.asp?code=&eCode=iktlik
Or for registration questions, contact Jill Collier at 858-822-4770 or
e-mail at jcollier@ucsd.edu
Atlanta, Georgia - February 18, 2003
Co-sponsored with Emory Healthcare at Emory University and The Morehouse
School of Medicine
To register online, please click on the link below:
<http://www.gynob.emory.edu/rtc/conferences_hipaa.html>
Or for registration questions, contact 404-523-1996 ext. 102, or email jbsurre@emory.edu
New York, NY - March 1, 2003
(registration and location details TBA)
Chicago, Illinois - March 2, 2003
(registration and location details TBA)
HHS Publishes Medical Privacy Rule Guidance
The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) recently issued a new guidance on its web site to help
assist mental health professionals and other entities to comply with the
final medical privacy rule.
The privacy rule, which has been revised numerous times since in was
issued in 2000, applied to "covered entities" that conduct
certain financial and administrative functions electronically. These
entities include health care professionals, health plans, hospitals,
insurers, and health care information clearinghouses. Covered health
entities must comply with the rule by April 14, 2003, although some
small health plans have until April 13, 2004. The guidance states,
"Failure to timely implement these standards may, under certain
circumstances, trigger the imposition of civil or criminal
penalties."
The guidance provides information on numerous topics, including
incidental use and disclosure of patient information; uses and
disclosure for treatment, payment, and health care operations; minimum
necessary standards; definitions of personal representatives and
business associates; marketing and research provisions; workers'
compensation laws; and frequently asked questions (FAQ's).
Each section of the guidance gives the history of the provision, how it
should be applied, and related FAQ's. HHS plans to post additional FAQ's
as new questions arise.
To view the guidance in its entirety, go to the HHS Office for Civil
Rights website at
www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/privacy.html.
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