Manatt Health partner Robert Belfort spoke with Inside Health Policy on HHS’s recent decision to waive penalties on business associates of covered entities that disclose protected health data for public health activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the article, Belfort notes that these waivers will allow health authorities to circumvent the approval process and give business associates more freedom to share information. “Electronic medical record vendors who have contracts with multiple covered entities can give information to government entities without contacting the entities for every single contract for permission. In turn, the data could be used to do public health surveillance to track COVID-19,” Belfort said.