Act by Friday to secure one-year HIPAA mega-rule extension for business associates
You’ll need to draft and sign a business associate agreement by Friday, Jan. 25, if you don’t already have one in place, to get an extra year to comply with new business associate regulations in the recently released HIPAA mega-rule.
The rule expanded the definition of “business associate” to include vendors, contractors and subcontractors for covered entities, including physician practices and home health agencies. That means vendors for electronic health records (EHR) systems and even janitorial services are required to abide by HIPAA and it’s the providers’ responsibility to make sure they do by Sept. 23.
But a little-noticed provision gives providers an additional year from the rule’s Sept. 23, 2013 compliance date to comply with the new business associate requirements if they submit an agreement by Jan. 25. Those agreements will be grandfathered in, barring any modification or renewal of the agreement before the grace period runs out Sept. 23, 2014.
If you don’t submit a HIPAA-compliant agreement by Jan. 25, you’ll be forced to comply with the new standards by Sept. 23, 2013.
The extension enables you to focus on compliance with other provisions of the final rule, such as updating policies to reflect changes to the notice of privacy practices and breach notifications.
What you should do now
First, determine whether you have business agreements in place and then run them by your health care attorney to make sure they’re compliant with HIPAA, advises Robert Tennant, senior policy advisor for the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) in Washington, D.C. If you don’t have an agreement, draw one up based on HHS’ Office of Civil Rights’ (OCR) checklist, have it signed and dated by all parties by Friday.
For more information on the HIPAA mega rule and how its changes will affect you, visit DecisionHealth’s publication sites for Part B News, Home Health Line and Private Duty Insider.
Don’t put yourself at risk of costly HIPAA violations. Register today for HIPAA “mega-rule” made simple and get a complete analysis of the new rule with attorney Robert Markette
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