Protecting Privacy in the Midst of COVID-19

Manatt Health senior advisor Stephanie Anthony and partner Randi Seigel authored an article for McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on the importance for long-term care (LTC) facilities to protect patient health information (PHI) maintained by LTC providers in addition to navigating on-the-ground operational challenges amid COVID-19. In the article, Anthony and Seigel noted that many LTC workers may be working from home in light of the crisis, and highlighted the unique challenges this introduces in relation to compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “The Office of Civil Rights has issued several HIPAA waivers to ease regulatory burdens on providers by exercising enforcement discretion and waiving potential penalties — for HIPAA violations and for failure to distribute notices of privacy practices — against healthcare providers that serve patients through everyday communications technologies during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. These waivers, however, do not protect LTC workers if they do not employ reasonable safeguards in the home work environment,” they added.

Read the article here.