Overview
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), in existence since 1996, establishes various protections, standards, and requirements for the transmission, storage, and handling of certain electronic health care information in all facets of the industry, public and private. A second part to HIPAA, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), extends the scope of HIPAA to directly regulate business partners, increase penalties for the breach of unsecured personal health information, and establish safe harbors for securing information through encryption software. Butzel attorneys focusing their practice on health care, and more specifically, HIPAA, are committed to providing legal and consulting services for those who must comply with HIPAA regulations and laws. Our Team is experienced in the areas of HIPAA compliance issues, enforcement actions, training, and legal threats.
Our clients range from established medical institutions to leading corporations, and from universities to health care startups. We counsel and represent medical providers, technology companies, group health plans, third-party administrators (TPAs), health-related marketers, and benefits managers, to name a few. Our professionals work with each client to develop an understanding of HIPAA issues specific to their unique needs. Members of Butzel's HIPAA team have assisted clients with developing contractual language regarding HIPAA business associate agreements, undertaken risk management and loss allocation strategic planning and implementation, conducted risk analysis for disclosures of unsecured protected health information triggering notice requirements, and advised on remediation actions in the event of a breach. We have developed appropriate policies and procedures and trained relevant members of the workforce, advised software developers on certification requirements, and provided general counsel advice to HIPAA privacy and security officers. Our health care attorneys help with gap analysis and the remediation of gaps and provide advice on operational issues and state and federal law privacy-related complaints.
Butzel's HIPAA team has extensive experience in representing business associates of HIPAA-covered health providers, health plans, and clearinghouses whose functions involve the use or disclosure of health information. HITECH has accelerated the push from hard copy to electronic medical records (EMR) and the development of regional health information exchanges and expanded broadband infrastructure. Several members of Butzel's HIPAA team have experience as computer engineers and in-house counsel for EMR software developers and private and public high speed internet providers. Our attorneys utilize their extensive technical, industry, and legal experience to help clients make the transition from paper to electronic systems and processes, maintain HIPAA compliance during transition, and keep the workforce trained and up to date. At Butzel, our attorneys take a practical approach in crafting HIPAA-compliant solutions to their clients’ privacy related issues.
