Health and Human Services
Dec. 10, 2009
Health and Human Services has asked the General Services Administration (GSA) to contract with approved specialists to develop “training courses and related materials to educate staff from the offices of state attorneys general and others about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules.”
With the new mandatory HIPAA fines effective soon, this is a promising sign that eventually Attorneys General around the country will more forcefully utilize their new HIPAA enforcement powers under HITECH. To date, only a few state AGs have and it seems the HHS wants them taking a more vigilant and aggressive role.
According to the informational release, the project will “assist state attorneys general in their efforts to exercise their new enforcement authority and promote productive and effective enforcement relationships with them, OCR will develop and convene a series of training seminars focused on enforcement of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.”