Who's Afraid of a Big Bad Breach?

The HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, brought about major changes in information privacy and security requirements. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been busy implementing the rules, regulations and guidance required by the HITECH Act. Earlier this year, HHS published information security guidance on encryption and destruction. Just last month, the FTC issued a final rule addressing security breaches of personal health records (PHRs). In addition, HHS issued an interim final rule in August that updated its prior guidance on the means to secure PHI, established a standard of harm threshold for notification, and provided some clarification on the definition of a breach, the exceptions, and the preemption of state laws.

Christine Rinn, Barbara Ryland and Robin Campbell are the panelists.