Practice Areas & Industries: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC

Practice/Industry Group Overview

By the time the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 became effective in December of 2000, the lawyers who now form Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's HIPAA Practice Group were already advising our clients about the regulations' potential impact.

Our attorneys continue to help health plans, health care providers, employers and other clients resolve those matters, focusing on health care privacy and security-related issues. Members of our HIPAA Practice Group advise health care providers, health plans, technology companies, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, management service organizations, biotechnology companies, and financial institutions, among others, on HIPAA compliance matters.

Services Available

We routinely address the implementation of new regulations and the analysis of existing or newly developed and implemented compliance policies.

As HIPAA regulatory enforcement draws closer, we are prepared to assist in defending potential HIPAA-related claims.

Examples of the types of matters we have recently handled include:

• Implications of HIPAA on health care banking arrangements and joint ventures
• Scope of permissible disclosure of protected health information (PHI) for health care provider fundraising activities
• Defense of whistleblower claims alleging breach of patient privacy and confidentiality and development of compliance strategies for pharmaceutical distributor
• Analysis of research implications of HIPAA and compliance strategies for a national coalition of research cooperatives
• Development of HIPAA forms for health care joint venture
• Structuring of an international telemedicine arrangement to conform with HIPAA
• HIPAA compliance strategies for internet pharmacy and information technology companies
• Analysis of HIPAA requirements for health plans
• HIPAA implications of medical staff hospital interactions
• Advising employers of their obligations to comply with HIPAA
• Scope of permissible disclosure of PHI for human subject research by covered entities
• Application of HIPAA to a federally funded school and its rehabilitation services
• Analysis of HIPAA structures for large health care systems and legal implications of same
• Local government options for compliance with HIPAA
• Serving on payor and provider committees to implement HIPAA compliance
• Working with e-PA Alliance to develop a baseline HIPAA preemption analysis of state law
• Negotiation and drafting of HIPAA business associate and other contracts
• Advising health industry officials on HIPAA privacy implications of various initiatives to reduce medical errors and improve health care quality

Our HIPAA Practice Group members include firm attorneys with legal experience in diverse areas of practice, including: health care, corporate finance, employee benefits, labor and employment, and litigation, among others.