Surprise!  HIPAA has changed, gotten bigger, and grown teeth.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or The Obama Stimulus Bill), signed into law in February 2009, includes new, more comprehensive provisions for HIPAA. These provisions are in a section of the bill known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).

For organizations that are already required to abide by HIPAA (i.e. the “Covered Entities” of HIPAA), HITECH adds the following requirements:

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