The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services announces a delay in its enforcement of the requirement that certain HIPAA–covered laboratories revise their notices of privacy practices (NPPs) to comply with the modifications made to the HIPAA Rules published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2013 (78 FR 5566), commonly known as the “Omnibus Rule,” until further notice.

This Enforcement Delay applies to HIPAA-covered laboratories that are subject to CLIA (i.e., CLIA-certified) or exempt from CLIA (i.e., CLIA-exempt) and that are not required to provide an individual with access to his or her laboratory test reports under § 164.524 of the HIPAA Privacy Rule because the information is subject to the exceptions to the right of access at § 164.524(a)(1)(iii)(A) or (B). 

The Enforcement Delay does not apply to laboratories that operate as part of a larger legal entity, such as a hospital, and by virtue of that relationship, do not have their own, laboratory-specific, NPPs.
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