AHA responds to HHS’s request for information on HIPAA rule

Hospitals and health systems are dedicated to safeguarding the privacy of patients’ medical information and believe that the current Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act rules generally offer an effective framework that permits covered entities to share patients’ protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations without creating significant impediments to the robust use and disclosure of patients’ PHI necessary to support high-quality care, AHA said today in comments submitted on the Department of Health and Human Services’ request for information on modifying HIPAA rules to improve coordinated care.
 
“We support efforts to decrease regulatory burdens for covered entities and remove unnecessary barriers that prevent or inhibit efficient care coordination and/or case management and do not further the transformation to value-based health care that simultaneously also respect and preserve the privacy and security of patients’ health information,” AHA said. “However, we believe that many of the concerns related to barriers and obstacles to sharing information the RFI’s questions raise would be best addressed through guidance and education.”