Today, NIST published the final version of Special Publication (SP) 800-66r2 (Revision 2), Implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule: A Cybersecurity Resource Guide. This publication, revised in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights, provides guidance for regulated entities (i.e., HIPAA-covered entities and business associates) on assessing and managing risks to electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI), identifies typical activities that a regulated entity might consider implementing as part of an information security program, and presents guidance that regulated entities can utilize in whole or in part to help improve their cybersecurity posture and assist with achieving compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule.
To assist regulated entities, key document content has been posted online. A list of resources (e.g., guidance, templates, tools) that regulated entities can consult for assistance about particular topics has been hosted on the SP 800-66r2 web page (see under "Supplemental Material" in the gray Documentation box). Additionally, the key activities, descriptions, and sample questions from the tables in Section 5 of the publication have been posted in NIST's Cybersecurity and Privacy Reference Tool (CPRT). The content in CPRT also includes mappings of the HIPAA Security Rule's standards and implementation specifications to NIST Cybersecurity Framework Subcategories and SP 800-53r5 security controls as well as listings of NIST publications relevant to each HIPAA Security Rule standard. Readers may draw upon these NIST publications and mappings for assistance in implementing HIPAA Security Rule standards and implementation specifications.
