Vol. 6, No.
3 - Summer 2003
Paper
Summarizes New Privacy Standards'
Impact
on Courts
To
assist courts’ understanding of the new “Standards for Privacy of
Individually Identifiable Health Information,” the National Center has
published a paper that assesses the standards’ initial impact on the courts.
The paper is available at www.ncsconline.org
and click on What’s New. The standards were mandated by the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and became effective April
14, 2003.
This
paper acts as a guide and offers an overview of the regulations and how they
apply to state courts. The summary includes specific areas of concern that have
already been experienced by some jurisdictions and how they were resolved.
The
most immediate impact on courts appears to be the ability to access protected
health information of individuals under the courts’ jurisdiction. Specific
provisions of the regulations authorize the release of protected health
information for judicial and administrative proceedings; however, the courts can
expect some reluctance and difficulty in obtaining this information during
initial enforcement periods. Drug courts are also likely to experience the
immediate impact of HIPAA.
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