Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services announced March 26 that the long-awaited rule updating (HIPAA) regulations has been to the (OMB).  The omnibus rule, which covers four previously released proposed and interim final rules, is expected to take a full 90 days permitted for OMB review.

The omnibus rule will include the final rules for the following: 

• the ( the was released in August 2009);
• the final HIPAA enforcement rule (the was released in October 2009);
• the final rule implementing the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act’s changes to the HIPAA privacy and security standards (the was released in July 2010); and
• a final rule implementing the modifications to HIPAA’s privacy rule (the was released in October 2009). 

OCR Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy, Susan McAndrew, made the announcement at the .  If OMB does take the full 90 days for its review, the final rule will be issued in late June 2012.