Business
Delegates act on HIPAA
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 4, 2006
The AMA House of Delegates took steps to help physicians protect themselves from violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act when they contract for services with foreign vendors.
The house adopted policy last month encouraging doctors who have entered into or are considering entering a business associate agreement to undertake due diligence about the business associate and to consider adding several contractual provisions.
Those provisions include: strong confidentiality clauses; required steps to mitigate any harmful effects of wrongful use or disclosure of protected health information; and assurance that all protected information is returned to the physician when the contract is done and no copies are kept by the business associate, except as required for legal or audit purposes.
The policy also said doctors should make sure the original contract contains provisions addressing costs involved with the return and maintenance of the health information at the end of the contract.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/12/04/bibf1204.htm.
