Simon Says – Musings of a Technology CTO

Last week, one of my colleagues asked me to comment on 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164, which for those of us who can’t remember all the code names for the various USA Federal docs, is the one in which the Department of Health and Human Services publishes its interim final rule under HIPPA and HITECH re what data falls under these regulations, what a “breach” means, and the conditions in which data is deemed to have been “protected”.

Under HITECH/HIPPA, basically there is a duty in the USA to care for the privacy of “unsecured protected health information” – this means that anyone electronically processing our heath information has a duty of care to make sure no unauthorised people gain access to it, and a legal duty to inform us if a breach (or possible breach) of trust occurs. Read more…