Free Documents Help With HITECH Compliance
Business associate agreement template included Healthcare organizations scrambling to comply with the breach notification rule under the HITECH Act now can access an updated version of a free business associate agreement template.The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance revised its model business associate agreement to reflect all the HITECH requirements, which update the original HIPAA privacy and security rule provisions.
Under HITECH, business associates must report information breaches to "covered entities" with which they do business. These entities include, for example, hospitals, health plans and physician groups. Federal officials will begin enforcing the rule Feb. 22.
The model agreement, developed by the organization's legal workgroup, is available at nchica.org.
The organization also offers other free standard documents to assist with HITECH and HIPAA compliance, including: a document to notify business associates about the new HITECH Act requirements; a template for business associate alerts; and a summary of HITECH provisions for business associates.
