Drinker Biddle’s HIPAA Compliance Update For Employee Benefit Plans - Breach Notification Rules Under HIPAA Omnibus Rule

This is the fourth in our series of bulletins on the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule. In our bulletins issued on February 28, 2013 and March 18, 2013, available here, we described the major provisions of this rule and explained how the provisions of the rule that strengthen the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) impact employer sponsored group health plans, which are covered entities under the HIPAA privacy rules. In our bulletin issued on April 4, 2013, available here, we focused on changes that will need to be made to business associate agreements under the Omnibus Final Rule. In this bulletin, we discuss the modifications to the breach notification rules made by the Omnibus Final Rule and provide health plan sponsors with information regarding the actions they must take to meet their breach notification obligations in the event of a breach of unsecured PHI.