HIPAA and Beyond: Health Information Privacy Updates

Never before has the healthcare sector seen so many changes to health information privacy laws. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has actively engaged in rulemaking in recent years including publishing a new rule related to reproductive healthcare privacy, amending regulations governing the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records to more closely align with HIPAA, and issuing a proposed rule to strengthen the HIPAA Security Rule. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expanded the scope of its Health Breach Notification Rule to apply to almost all health and wellness applications that fall outside of HIPAA. States are enacting comprehensive privacy laws with complex interactions with existing health information laws. And HHS, FTC, and private litigants have all turned their focus toward the disclosure of website visitor information from healthcare entities to third parties.

Whether subject to or exempt from HIPAA, healthcare entities and others who handle health information need to stay on top of this rapidly evolving legal landscape to understand their obligations and risks.

Listen as our authoritative panel of healthcare attorneys examines the latest changes to health information privacy and enforcement. The panel will discuss what these changes may mean for healthcare providers and others in the healthcare industry.

1. Overview and status of HIPAA rulemaking
2. Website disclosures by healthcare entities
3. Recent enforcement trends in health information privacy and security
4. Interaction of state comprehensive data protection laws and health information privacy laws
5. FTC health information privacy guidance and enforcement actions

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• What are the top risks facing entities handling health information?
• What is the status of various changes to health information privacy laws?
• What changes do healthcare entities and those who support them need to make in response to these changes?