• Welcome to my blog.
    Here is some more information about me and here is my blog’s official disclaimer.



    Follow me on Twitter ...

    @manpowerblawg
  • The Employment Law Sing-A-Long Song
    The Employment Law Sing-A-Long Song
    Views: 8,744
    How to Hire If You Want to Get Fired
    How to Hire If You Want to Get Fired
    Views: 5,498
    Up Close and Personnel Tour
    Caffeinated Conversations
  • Following a batch of frivolous complaints against executives that resulted in several of them hating your guts because you conducted the investigations, you institute a policy calling for brief "reviews" rather than full-scale investigations whenever a complaint is filed against an executive. The next time a complaint is made against an executive, you conduct a brief review and find no evidence of wrongdoing. What's most likely to happen next?


    View Results

Are You Ready for HITECH?

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) will soon require employers to provide notice to plan participants, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and maybe even the media, following breaches of protected health information (PHI). The HITECH Act goes beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and adds new requirements for employers who in the past may not have worried much about PHI.

Is that enough acronyms for you?

The HITECH Act is part of the stimulus package enacted in February. The new regulations will cover breaches that occur after September 23, 2009. However, HHS has announced a 120-day grace period, which means enforcement won’t begin in earnest until February 22, 2010.

What should employers do between now and then? Plenty, including (among other things):

  • become familiar with the new regulations;
  • revise existing HIPAA policies and procedures;
  • implement a breach response plan;
  • discuss the plan with business associates and negotiate modifications to existing business associate agreements; and
  • train employees.

For a couple of excellent articles on this topic, including FAQs and step-by-step instructions, click here and here.

Comments

Leave a Reply