In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Wednesday, 23 January

Come March 26, it’s likely that many won’t really be as prepared as they think they are, or need to be, in time for the new HIPAA rules. “The majority of business associates now are probably not meeting the letter of the law in terms of their security obligations,” according to Doug Pollack, chief marketing officer for ID Experts. “There will be breaches, and you’re going to see substantial monetary penalties applied to business associates for not being rigorous about meeting their security obligations.”

Over on GovernmentHealthIT.com, attorney Bob Belfort participated in a Q&A on the remaining ambiguities in the final HIPAA rule. Belfort examines what’s in the new ruling, and what isn’t, and what it All Might Mean.

Other headlines for your Hump Day:

• “Liking” Lupus on Facebook? Debra Wolf, Irene Joos, and Ramona Nelson have written a book detailing the confluence of chronic illness and social media: Wolf predicts social media will become a “large part of healthcare” due to the number of people with chronic illnesses who can’t access care other than in a virtual setting. “We need to begin preparing the population and future healthcare providers for this road.”

• What a Ken Burns Documentary on Healthcare Might Look Like: “As most American progressives know, nearly every industrialized country in the world has a government-funded health care program—except the US. Not as many of us know, however, that in nearly all of those countries, organized labor was a central player in fighting for and defending those systems.” So says Micah Uetricht over on TheNation.com.

• Time is the Enemy: “The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday a bid by a group of 18 hospitals to reopen a specialized group of Medicare reimbursement claims that are up to 25 years old.”