In addition to reprinting the PDF of the CMS CoPs and Interpretive Guidelines, we include key Survey and Certification memos that CMS has issued to announced changes to the emergency preparedness final rule, fire and smoke door annual testing requirements, survey team composition and investigation of complaints, infection control screenings, and legionella risk reduction.

In the realm of health care, privacy protections are needed to preserve patients' dignity and prevent possible harms. Ten years ago, to address these concerns as well as set guidelines for ethical health research, Congress called for a set of federal standards now known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In its 2009 report, Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information concludes that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not protect privacy as well as it should, and that it impedes important health research.