HHS Proposed Rule Would Allow Patients to Learn Who Has Accessed Their Health Records

June 9, 2011 10:01 am

United States Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is developing a rule that would allow patients to request a report that lists anyone who has electronically accessed and viewed their protected health information. The proposed rule would change the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, and specifically the accounting of disclosures requirement. Currently covered entities are required to track access to electronic protected health information, but they are not required to share this information with people, as noted in the HHS press release. The new rule has been proposed pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has been published on the Federal Register Web site and comments on the proposed rule must be submitted by August 1, 2011.