Employers see some concerns in plan to simplify regulations; HHS proposes amending privacy rules.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)

Business Insurance, April, 2002 by Hofmann, Mark A.

WASHINGTON-Proposed medical records privacy rules may be aimed at health plans and health care providers, but their impact also would be felt by employers, health care experts say. Employer and insurance groups generally welcomed the Department of Health and Human Services announcement late last month that it wanted to modify health records privacy rules that the agency promulgated in late December 2000 (BI, Jan.

1, 2001). HHS had to issue the rules because Congress had failed to meet its own deadline for doing so, as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. But the rules issued in 2000 went far beyond Congress' intention by extending new privacy protections to all types of medical records and communications, rather than just...

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