From the article:
For many years, federal, state, and local lawmakers have struggled to find the appropriate balance between protecting the privacy of health information and ensuring that health information is available when necessary for other important purposes. A patchwork of federal and state laws, rules, common law, and professional ethical obligations and guidelines has resulted, providing a hazy outline at best for when providers and insurers may share health information with other entities.
This past year, however, the first and only comprehensive federal rule on health privacy went into effect. This article provides a brief history of the new rule, summarizes many of the rule’s complex requirements, and offers a few suggestions for entities and local governments, particularly counties, to consider as they begin to comply.
