Since April 2003, all health care providers have needed to restructure how they handle individually identifiable health care information.

The HIPAA privacy regulation changed how providers and other entities operate in the health care industry. The process of navigating the federal regulatory requirements, state laws, individual rights and organizational needs is new territory for everyone. Our health privacy team helps clients address the uncertainty of new rules and design concrete action plans.

Our Comprehensive HIPAA Resource Guide is designed to help clients understand the HIPAA regulations and the law's application to their health care operations.

Our privacy team includes 20 attorneys with years of experience in advising hospitals, pharmacies, drug manufacturers, nursing homes, medical equipment suppliers, clinics and home health agencies, physicians, laboratories and infusion therapy providers on reimbursement issues, including a physician and a nurse capable of dealing with clinical issues associated with privacy.

HIPAA Experience

• HIPAA multi-state preemption analyses for a national retail chain pharmacy.
• Current engagement with the Federal Department of Health and Human Services to provide HIPAA implementation advice to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Health Resources Services Administration for use by their grantees that operate in multiple jurisdictions.
• HIPAA analysis and implementation guidance for multifunction entities and their associated health systems (including hospital, long term care center, health plan, employer, case management program, marketing program, physician clinic; and joint board) regarding permitted uses and disclosures of PHI.
• HIPAA health plan and employer-oriented analysis and implementation guidance for major multi-state corporations.
• HIPAA business associate analysis and implementation for multi-state medical device manufacturer.
• HIPAA implementation guidance, including full "gaps analysis" and policy and procedure development, for physician and specialty clinics.
• HIPAA analysis and implementation guidance for skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, and long-term acute care hospitals. These projects involved a review of information flows for both specific facilities and among affiliated facilities and their parent organization; HIPAA analysis of each information use or disclosure; and development of policies and procedures, if needed, to address each use or disclosure.
• HIPAA implementation guidance on policy and operational issues for a pharmaceutical manufacturer operating in numerous states.
• HIPAA implementation guidance, including advice to multiple providers in numerous communities regarding data sharing for treatment, case management, quality assurance and research purposes.
• Development of educational modules covering HIPAA requirements for each different type of covered entity, as well as plan sponsors, for use by Complysite, a company that offers web-based HIPAA compliance training. (See http://www.complysite.com/training-hipaa .)