Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

The Omnibus Final Rule (Final Rule) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was issued in January 2013 and became effective on March 26, 2013 with a general compliance date of September 23, 2013. However, Covered Entities were given additional time to get their pre-Final Rule Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) in compliance. That compliance deadline is fast approaching on September 23, 2014.

While the donation of a valuable item such as an EHR program would raise fraud and abuse concerns, exemptions under Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Safe Harbor were designed to encourage the widespread implementation of EHR and to let smaller providers accept gifts of EHR software without violating the law or statute.