Beginning September 23, 2013, compliance with the revised Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) privacy and security rules is mandatory. These rules implement most requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”).
Who must comply?
Most employer-sponsored group health plans 1 must comply, including the following:
- self-insured medical, dental and vision plans
- health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
- health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs)
- governmental health plans and church plans
- most employee assistance programs (EAPs)
- most long-term care plans
What must be done?
The steps your plan needs to take will vary depending on your current compliance and plan structure. However, in order to meet the new requirements, at least the following steps must be taken:
- revising and distributing the plan notice of privacy practices
- revising policies and procedures
- updating business associate agreements
- entering into revised business associate agreements with vendors
- training workforce members on the new requirements
Why is this important?
HITECH significantly increased the civil penalties for violating HIPAA. Further, OCR 2 is enforcing HIPAA more aggressively and is auditing covered entities for compliance. The breach notification requirements make enforcement reviews more likely (in the event of a data breach). Now is the time for employers to focus their attention (again!) on HIPAA to help reduce the likelihood of violations and prepare for the possibility of an OCR audit.
Bass, Berry & Sims can offer a variety of solutions including:
- working with you to modify your existing HIPAA-related documents
- helping you create new HIPAA-related documents
- negotiating amended or new business associate agreements with your plans’ vendors
- training your plans’ workforce
If you have any questions or would like to get started with the suggested solutions, please contact any of the attorneys in our Employee Benefits Group.
1 Small self-administered health plans (those with fewer than 50 participants) do not have to comply. Fully insured plans that do not receive personal health information (PHI) (or the plan sponsor receives only summary health information and enrollment/disenrollment information) have significantly reduced compliance obligations.
2 The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces the HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification rules (see www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy).