The Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) issued a statement on June 6 commending the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for furthering patient protections through the issuance of a proposed change to the HIPAA Privacy Rule. However, AAHC, which represents more than 100 academic medical centers, noted that the accounting for disclosure requirement of the rule “has proved to be excessive and burdensome for the nation’s biomedical research enterprise.”
via www.ehrwatch.com
The AAHC may have a good case for exemptions from disclosure, especially if the PHI has been de-identified according to law, but it does illustrate one of the problems with HIPAA enforcement, everyone thinks it is a good thing that the "other guy" comply. The more exceptions the potentially more fragmented the enforcement.
So far, OCR has been less the aggressive (understatement) in its enforcement actions. I believe that this is mostly due to creating "breathing space" for the healthcare industry as it attempts to deal with EHR implementations and other major initiatives ICD-10.
There is a "messaging middle ground" that OCR should adopt that gets the wheel turning on compliance without taking out the big stick (yet). OCR should indicate what it expects from covered entities of all sizes? Why? Because historically HIPAA enforcement has been almost completely ignored by the industry (treated as an inside joke). There are hardly any business process built around compliance, and little adoption of HIPAA Compliance Software to speak of.
Without business processes enabled by affordable compliance software the industry will lag in its compliance efforts for the next ten years, and unacceptable outcome if we really want a NHIN that everyone participates in.
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