Michael J. Coco writes:
If you have ever bought or sold a business, or you have experience with the process, you are aware of the due diligence efforts and multiple agreements required to close the deal. Transactions involving the sale or purchase of health care related business, such as a medical practice, often take the
My partner Elizabeth Litten and I were interviewed by Marla Durben Hirsch for her recent article in Medical Practice Compliance Alert entitled “Evaluate Relationships Before Signing Business Associate Agreements.” While the full text can be found in the February 3, 2014 issue of Medical Practice Compliance Alert, the following considerations are based upon points
Michael J. Coco writes:
The expanded requirements under the HIPAA Omnibus Rule for a Business Associate Agreement (“BAA”) has created an increase in volume and the need for analysis of such agreements, as individuals in industries traditionally unrelated to health care – such as IT vendors –find themselves confronting issues respecting a BAA. The increase
What do you do if you have signed a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with a covered entity, but are getting protected health information (PHI) from the covered entity in conjunction with health care treatment you provide to the individual? What if another covered entity provider has contracted with you to provide services to that provider’s
Who you are makes a big difference in how and whether you must protect individually identifiable health information under HIPAA. As we near the end of 2013, I look back at the events of the past year and am struck by the breadth and complexity of the issues we have written about on this blog
I read a recent Forbes.com post by Rick Ungar (“Claims That Obamacare Website Violates Health Privacy Reveals Embarrassing Fact – GOP Does Not Understand HIPAA or Obamacare”) that revealed a truly embarrassing fact: very few of us really understand HIPAA, let alone the intricacies of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Obamacare”) and its interplay
It is noteworthy that there are often substantial delays in disclosures regarding covered entities (“CEs”) that have become marchers in the Parade of large Protected Health Information (“PHI”) security breaches under HIPAA. This is the case even though the PHI breach notification rule requires that, when a PHI breach affects 500 or more individuals (a
A party (Party) to a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) or Subcontractor Agreement (SCA), whether a covered entity (CE), business associate (BA) or subcontractor (SC), may struggle with the question as to whether to agree to, demand, request, submit to, negotiate or permit, an indemnification provision (Provision) respecting the counterparty (Counterparty) under a BAA or
Where did the time go? Today’s the day – September 23, 2013. This is compliance day for most of the Omnibus Rule changes. I had a feeling this deadline would catch up with me faster than I would be able to blog my 10 tips, so I’m going to count “TIP TWO” as tips TWO
Unless the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) makes another last-minute, litigation-inspired decision to delay the September 23, 2013 compliance date, we’re on a 10-day countdown for compliance with most of the Omnibus Rule requirements. In a motion filed jointly with the plaintiff in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on