HHS Strengthens HIPAA Enforcement

Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued an interim final rule with request for comments to strengthen its enforcement of the rules promulgated under HIPAA. The HITECH Act, which was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, modified the HHS secretary’s authority to impose civil money penalties for violations occurring after Feb. 18, 2009. These HITECH Act revisions significantly increase the penalty amounts the secretary may impose for violations of the HIPAA rules and encourage prompt corrective action.

Prior to the HITECH Act, the secretary could not impose a penalty of more than $100 for each violation or $25,000 for all identical violations of the same provision. A covered healthcare provider, health plan, or clearinghouse could also bar the secretary’s imposition of a civil money penalty by demonstrating that it did not know that it violated the HIPAA rules. Section 13410(d) of the HITECH Act strengthened the civil money penalty scheme by establishing tiered ranges of increasing minimum penalty amounts, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million for all violations of an identical provision. A covered entity can no longer bar the imposition of a civil money penalty for an unknown violation unless it corrects the violation within 30 days of discovery.

The interim final rule with request for comments conforms the HIPAA enforcement regulations to these revisions made by the HITECH Act. It may be viewed and commented on at www.regulations.gov. This rulemaking will become effective on Nov. 30, and HHS will consider all comments received by Dec. 29.

This interim final rule with request for comments is the first of several steps HHS is taking to implement the HITECH Act’s enforcement provisions. The remaining provisions, which have yet to become effective, will be addressed in the next few months in forthcoming rulemakings.

Source: Health and Human Services