HHS proposes changes to HIPAA regulations

PARCA eNews – Dec. 20, 2020 – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted a proposal for relaxing some of the regulations around patient privacy in an effort to improve care coordination and case management among a patient’s providers. The 350-plus page document was posted on the HHS site on Dec. 14, 2020.

“Our proposed changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule will break down barriers that have stood in the way of commonsense care coordination and value-based arrangements for far too long,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in press release. “As part of our broader efforts to reform regulations that impede care coordination, these proposed reforms will reduce burdens on providers and empower patients and their families to secure better health.”
The executive summary outlines the proposed changes to facilitate the exchange of personal health information among patient providers by modifying the privacy rule to increase permissible disclosures of PHI and clarify definitions for the terms electronic health records and personal health application.

The proposal also looks to modify a number of HIPAA provisions by:

• Strengthening individuals’ right of access to PHI
• Amending the definition of healthcare operations to clarify the scope of permitted uses and disclosures of individual-level care coordination
• Creating an exception to the "minimum necessary" standard for individual-level care coordination and disclosures
• Clarifying the scope of covered entities’ abilities to disclose PHI to social services agencies, community-based organizations, how and community based service organizations
• Replacing the privacy standard that permits covered entities to make certain uses and disclosures of PHI based on professional judgment
• Expanding the ability of covered entities to disclose PHI to avert a threat to health or safety when a serious harm is imminent
• Elimination of individual’s requirement for written acknowledgment of a provider’s notice of privacy (NPP) practices
• Modify NPP content requirements to clarify patients’ rights with respect to their PHI
• Expressly permitting disclosures to Telecommunications Relay Services for persons with hearing disabilities
• Expand the armed forces permission to use or disclose PHI across all branches of the military

The agency is asking for public comments on the proposal, which are due 60 days after its Dec. 14, 2020 publication in the Federal Register.

HHS wants to hear from the all HIPAA-covered entities, other healthcare and technology stakeholders, consumer advocates – and, especially, patients and their families.


Source: HHS press release