The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced that the HIPAA and HITECH Notifications of Enforcement Discretion issued during the COVID-19 public health emergency will come to an end on May 11, 2023.
These notifications, which were published in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed covered entities to relax their adherence to certain HIPAA rules in order to provide essential healthcare services to patients. For instance, providers were permitted to use non-public-facing communication technologies like Zoom and Skype for telemedicine visits.
However, with the public health emergency set to expire, OCR is providing a 90-day transition period for covered health care providers to comply with the HIPAA Rules regarding telehealth services. This transition period will be in effect from May 12, 2023 to August 9, 2023. OCR will continue to exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties on covered health care providers for noncompliance with the HIPAA Rules that occurs in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during this period.
This means that healthcare providers have a window to ensure that they are compliant with HIPAA rules related to telehealth, without worrying about facing penalties for noncompliance.
