HHS' Office for Civil Rights has launched a new Web portal designed to boost HIPAA familiarity among mobile health developers, Health Data Management reports.

Portal Details

OCR is gearing its effort toward mobile health developers, though anyone in health IT can use the site, according to Health Data Management. OCR noted, "[M]any [mobile health] developers are not familiar with the HIPAA rules and how the rules would apply to their products."

Through the portal, developers can:

• Learn about HIPAA requirements;
• Provide comments; and
• Submit questions.

The portal is hosted by IdeaScale, a crowdsourcing platform.

To use the site, providers must sign up on the IdeaScale website. Email addresses and identities will be anonymous to OCR. The agency noted that submitting questions or comments "will not subject anyone to enforcement action."

Further, OCR will use input submitted through the site to develop guidance and technical assistance. It is seeking comments on:

• HIPAA provisions that confuse stakeholders;
• Topics to address in guidance; and
• Ways to make guidance easier to access and understand (Goedert, Health Data Management, 11/19).