One of the most significant changes is that law firms and other “Business Associates” of “Covered Entities” under HIPAA now have most of the same compliance requirements as Covered Entities, and are subject to the same penalties as Covered Entities. Mary Pryor, Esq., a senior member of The Cavanagh Law Firm, P.A., recently joined with several of her colleagues in The Harmonie Group in authoring two articles summarizing the new HIPAA / HITECH rules and their implications: “Omnibus Rule Implications For Law Firms As Business Associates,” and “Omnibus Rule Implications For Covered Entities.” The articles may be accessed by pasting the following links into your browser:
http://www.harmonie.org/user_documents/HIPAA_Omnibus_LawFirms.pdf
http://www.harmonie.org/user_documents/HIPAA_Omnibus_CoveredEntities.pdf