Implications for public health under the HIPAA omnibus final rule

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Omnibus Final Rule on January 17, 2013. This final rule implements modifications required by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), as well as most of the Privacy, Security, and Enforcement provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). These changes are aimed at enhancing a patient's privacy protections, providing individuals new rights to their health information and strengthening the government's ability to enforce the law. This session will discuss the most important changes to HIPAA under this rule, including changes affecting hybrid entities. This session will then discuss the implications of these changes for public health agencies, practitioners and researchers.