Recent enacted federal regulations add new reporting responsibilities in the event of a breach of health information and add protection of genetic information under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was signed into law on Feb. 17, 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). HITECH made sweeping changes to the security and privacy rules embodied in HIPAA, which was introduced in 1996.
In many ways, it is the culmination of the federal government’s efforts to accelerate the rapid adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in the United States. HITECH codifies and funds the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), provides for the infusion of $19.2 billion in incentive payments over a four-year period for providers who adopt and use health information technology (HIT), and expands security and privacy provisions and penalties directly to HIPAA business associates of covered entities.
