OMB Clears HITECH Act Accounting of Disclosures NPRM

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), responsible for enforcement of the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, will issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to modify the HIPAA Privacy Rule as necessary to implement the accounting of disclosures provisions of Section 13405(c) of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) (Title XIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009–Public Law 111-5).  Section 13405(c) is entitled: Accounting of Certain Protected Health Information Disclosures Required if Covered Entity Uses Electronic Health Record. The NPRM was submitted on February 9, 2011, by HHS to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance under Executive Order (EO) 12866 Regulatory Review, and was cleared by OMB on May 23, 2011. Publication of the NPRM will be in the Federal Register.  The HITECH Act statutory language is available at 123 STAT.265-266.