Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: implementation.

Existing law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Implementation Act of 2001, provides for the Office of HIPAA Implementation in the California Health and Human Services Agency to assume statewide leadership and perform related activities for the implementation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) . Under existing law, the director of the office is required to establish an advisory committee to obtain information on statewide activities to implement HIPAA that is required to meet, at a minimum, twice each year. Existing law required that, during 2002, state entities subject to HIPAA assess its impact on their operations and that the office report that information to the Legislature. Under existing law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Implementation Act of 2001 will be repealed on January 1, 2013. This bill would extend the operation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Implementation Act of 2001 to January 1, 2014, and would transfer responsibility for the statewide implementation of HIPAA to the Office of Health Information Integrity in the California Health and Human Services Agency. The bill would delete the requirement of 2 annual meetings for the advisory committee, providing for meetings as required for coordination purposes. The bill would also delete the assessment and reporting requirements for state entities and the office, which were required to be completed in 2002.