The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released their proposed changes to the HIPAA regulations this week.
For the medical transcription industry, perhaps the most significant change is a clarification that all subcontractors will also now be considered business associates.
What this means for the independent contractor is that you are now responsible for everything in the HIPAA regulations the same as a covered entity or a business associate.
The change is an attempt to assure that protected health information is protected "downstream," by everyone who has access to it.
It will hold independent contractors equally accountable and liable under the law.
This is significant in our industry.
Before this proposed change, independent contractors were certainly responsible for protecting the information, however, they were not required to do all of the things listed in the rules.
With this change, it appears even an independent contractor who works for a service will have to be able to show documentation that they are compliant.
Subcontractors will also have to have a written business associate agreement with their clients, who are business associates to the covered entity.
The document outlining the proposed changes is 234 pages long and lots to read.
You can find the beginning of discussion about the changes at the HIPAA4MT website.
As I read through more of it (for the second, third, or fourth time), I will also be posting updates there.
The changes are proposed for now, and will be published in the Federal Register on July 14.
That will open the 60 day public comment period.
The OCR estimates there are 1,500,000 business associates who will need to spend one hour of legal time in redoing their business associate agreements with their customers.
They are not aware of how many subcontractors those business associates have.
Business associates will have to have a business associate agreement with each subcontractor they have, and I imagine in our industry that means a lot of man hours to get compliant with these changes.
If you are an independent contractor, it would be wise to start thinking now of how this impacts your business and what you can do to meet the new requirements.
I hope this post will spur some discussion here from all of you!
For the medical transcription industry, perhaps the most significant change is a clarification that all subcontractors will also now be considered business associates.
What this means for the independent contractor is that you are now responsible for everything in the HIPAA regulations the same as a covered entity or a business associate.
The change is an attempt to assure that protected health information is protected "downstream," by everyone who has access to it.
It will hold independent contractors equally accountable and liable under the law.
This is significant in our industry.
Before this proposed change, independent contractors were certainly responsible for protecting the information, however, they were not required to do all of the things listed in the rules.
With this change, it appears even an independent contractor who works for a service will have to be able to show documentation that they are compliant.
Subcontractors will also have to have a written business associate agreement with their clients, who are business associates to the covered entity.
The document outlining the proposed changes is 234 pages long and lots to read.
You can find the beginning of discussion about the changes at the HIPAA4MT website.
As I read through more of it (for the second, third, or fourth time), I will also be posting updates there.
The changes are proposed for now, and will be published in the Federal Register on July 14.
That will open the 60 day public comment period.
The OCR estimates there are 1,500,000 business associates who will need to spend one hour of legal time in redoing their business associate agreements with their customers.
They are not aware of how many subcontractors those business associates have.
Business associates will have to have a business associate agreement with each subcontractor they have, and I imagine in our industry that means a lot of man hours to get compliant with these changes.
If you are an independent contractor, it would be wise to start thinking now of how this impacts your business and what you can do to meet the new requirements.
I hope this post will spur some discussion here from all of you!