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Notification of Enforcement Discretion for telehealth:
We are empowering medical providers to serve patients wherever they are during this national public health emergency. We are especially concerned about reaching those most at risk, including older persons and persons with disabilities. – Roger Severino, OCR Director.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for enforcing certain regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, to protect the privacy and security of protected health information, namely the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules (the HIPAA Rules).
During the COVID-19 national emergency, which also constitutes a nationwide public health emergency, covered health care providers subject to the HIPAA Rules may seek to communicate with patients, and provide telehealth services, through remote communications technologies. Some of these technologies, and the manner in which they are used by HIPAA covered health care providers, may not fully comply with the requirements of the HIPAA Rules.
OCR will exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties for noncompliance with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA Rules against covered health care providers in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. This notification is effective immediately.
A covered health care provider that wants to use audio or video communication technology to provide telehealth to patients during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency can use any non-public facing remote communication product that is available to communicate with patients. OCR is exercising its enforcement discretion to not impose penalties for noncompliance with the HIPAA Rules in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth using such non-public facing audio or video communication products during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. This exercise of discretion applies to telehealth provided for any reason, regardless of whether the telehealth service is related to the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions related to COVID-19.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by martyb on Wednesday March 18 2020, @11:33AM (5 children)
I'm curious. What part of the story was not proper English? Please quote it and then show how you would correct it.
Separately, I am mildly disturbed to see no affirmation of prohibited actions on the phone- or internet-related parties (i.e. telco, ISP, app, etc.) with respect to said communications.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @05:59PM (4 children)
Look at the headline. Huh?!
Then you have to wade through several dense obtuse paragraphs sprinkled with loads of obscure acronyms even to approach what the sub is about.
Even after wading through all that gibberish, chances are you'd be clueless if you are not aware that HIPPA has strict privacy rules regarding personal medical information.
Capice?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @06:07PM
Actually, about HIPPA, it does mention it in the lovely piece of writing quoted below:
(Score: 2) by martyb on Thursday March 19 2020, @04:56AM (1 child)
What I am seeing is a complaint about the material's reading level [wikipedia.org]. The mean reading level in the USA is at just over the 7th grade level. Basically shortly after completing primary school. The quoted passage was an official statement, copied verbatim from the official government announcement. So, if you have issues with the readability of the announcement, it should be directed at the government, not at us here at SoylentNews who simply copied it. Although the sentences were somewhat long, and it had some domain-specific vocabulary and terminology, the grammar and spelling are correct.
Could they have written a more readable document? Maybe. Was anything they wrote factually incorrect? Not that I could see. Given the writers were in a hurry to get the document completed and out ASAP, I can understand their focus on getting the information correct, though possibly at the expense of readability.
In short, I think your displeasure is misdirected, the writing which we quoted was accurate, and that if anything needs improvement, you might find it easier to improve your reading skills than to demand that others write more simply.
"It is much easier to put slippers on my feet than to try and carpet the world."
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @05:11AM
You keep it up, you'd be the first one up against the wall when the campaign for real English overthrows the cretin regime.
You have been warned.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Thursday March 19 2020, @03:28PM
I do wish that the AC who made the original comment would learn to speak English!