HIPAA was passed into law in 1996–not exactly the heyday of digital technology. It wasn’t until over a decade later that Congress decided to implement updates to the law to address the rise of digital technology. Their goal? To push providers to update their record-keeping to Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, secure those systems effectively, and eliminate the loopholes that would prevent adherence to the law.
Thus, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, or HITECH, was born. Here, we’ll discuss some of the changes that HITECH made to HIPAA law and how that informs the compliance obligations of businesses in the healthcare industry.
