Arthur J. Fried, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s New York office, was quoted in Bloomberg BNA Health Care Daily Report, in “Providers Can Disclose Private Health Info to Protect Public,” by James Swann. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
While the guidance may be a useful compilation of the HIPAA rules governing the disclosure of protected health information for public health purposes, there doesn't seem to be anything new that hasn't already been covered in the HIPAA regulations, Arthur Fried, a health-care attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA.
Fried said it's possible that the OCR's HIPAA audits have indicated there's confusion regarding how the Security Rule applies to these disclosures when electronic protected health information is involved.