New HIPAA Rules in effect.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services rules and regulations for the use of Personal Health Information (PHI) went into effect April 14, 2003.
1. These regulations require health care providers (ambulance services, hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, and others) to provide patients with a summary of their privacy policy and guidelines. These policies and guidelines must spell out in detail how a patient's PHI may be used and not used with and without the patient's permission. CCPA will have their policy posted on this site shortly.
2. These new rules and regulations are the second of three sets of rules being promulgated as a result of the HIPAA Law passed by congress in 1997. The first set of regulations dealt with the method of electronic transfer of medical information and went into effect in October 2002. Due to the complex nature difficulty in converting software and computer systems to the new standards an extension was granted for compliance until Oct. 2003. The third set of regulations deals with physical security and access to PHI and is slated to go into effect in April of 2004.