HHS seeks to re-identify de-identified HIPAA data

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intends to solicit and award a task order contract to acquire services for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), in order to re-identify a health Information Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) de-identified dataset.

According to HHS, the contractor should have an in-depth knowledge of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and experience with conducting research on re-identifying a HIPAA de-identified dataset. The agency said that the contractor shall take one or more HIPAA Privacy Rule de-identified datasets and demonstrate the ability or inability to re-identify the data.

HHS defines “re-identifying” as accurately and unambiguously matching the de-identifed data record to an actual individual.

No solicitation will be posted and capability statements are not being requested, stated the agency.

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