Office of the Secretary July 14, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS or ``the Department'') is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (Privacy Rule), the Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information (Security Rule), and the rules pertaining to Compliance and Investigations, Imposition of Civil Money Penalties, and Procedures for Hearings (Enforcement Rule) issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The purpose of these modifications is to implement recent statutory amendments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (``the HITECH Act'' or ``the Act''), to strengthen the privacy and security protection of health information, and to improve the workability and effectiveness of these HIPAA Rules.