HIPAA Rules: Omnibus Rule

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule of 2013 to implement the changes mandated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. This Rule increases flexibility for and lessens the burden on regulated entities while strengthening privacy and security safeguards for people’s health information. To improve their usability and effectiveness, it also makes a few other changes to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Breach Notification, and Enforcement Rules (the HIPAA Rules).

The HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule established new sanctions for HIPAA noncompliance, filled in the gaps in the HIPAA and HITECH laws, and resolved any remaining questions.