NEWS & ARTICLES

Which Hospitals Are Complying With HIPAA: An Empirical Investigation of US Hospitals

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:53:08 -0800

Since the passage of HIPAA regulation, US hospitals have gone on a high gear by investing organizational resources on HIPAA policy and procedures, information technologies, and information privacy & security safeguards to achieve compliance status by the enforcement dates. Yet, recent industry report, conducted post HIPAA enforcement deadlines, presents a bleak picture of HIPAA compliance, raising concerns for the privacy and security of patient data, as well transactional efficiency of hospitals. Drawing from organizational sociology and organizational behavior literature the paper examines propensity of hospitals being fully compliant with privacy, security and transaction rules of HIPAA.

HIPAA Compliance: An Examination of Institutional and Market Forces

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:51:03 -0800

One would think that the enactment of the HIPAA, with its mandates on data security and privacy, would have brought a major shift in the security management practices within the US healthcare. Unfortunately, recent industry reports indicate low levels of regulatory compliance, thus raising security concerns for the US health IT infrastructure. This research develops a regulatory compliance model by drawing insights from the institutional theory literature to identify the key drivers influencing HIPAA compliance, both institutional and market forces (e.g., variability in state-level privacy laws comprehensiveness, interdependency between privacy and security rules, pressure from compliance leaders in the region, compliance officer's functional background, and the consumer concern for privacy).

Novell Case Study: Enloe Medical Center

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:50:20 -0800

Enloe Medical Center is a 391-bed hospital serving more than 400,000 residents in a six-county region in Northern California. Physicians and clinicians at Enloe Medical Center were frustrated by having to remember multiple passwords to access patient care applications. The center implemented Novell SecureLogin to provide single sign-on access, reducing passwords by 85 percent and login times by 60 percent. The medical center also improved its ability to comply with increasingly stringent HIPAA requirements.

Protecting Patient Health Information in the HITECH Era: Security Challenges for Adopting Health Information Technology to Comply With HIPAA and the HITECH Act

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:01:47 -0800

The American Healthcare system is getting a complete facelift thanks to incentives to adopt Health Information Technology introduced by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009, the HITECH Act is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is also part of the broader healthcare reform initiative championed by President Obama. That agenda includes a push for the adoption of interoperable data capture, storage and transmission protocols in healthcare systems. New health information technology is considered to be a vital step in the drive to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and ultimately to improve patient care.

Supporting Compliance: A Network Approach

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:49:00 -0800

With the significant increase in compliance related mandates put upon IT organizations today, Enterasys has written this white paper to explain the approach to supporting compliance through advanced policy-driven networking. Regulatory compliance and governance mandates are new and daunting issues for any IT organization. These requirements for compliance can come from outside the organization in the form of government legislation, such as HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley. They can also come from the inside of the organization in the form of organizational governance edicts from executive management. In either case, the network infrastructure must play a role in supporting the often abstract requirements of compliance, while at the same time ensuring that the business objectives of the organization are still being met.

What Every CIO Needs to Know About HIPAA Compliance

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:14:18 -0800

Compliance with HIPAA is mandatory and violators face up to $250,000 in fines and jail time of up to 10 years. HIPAA regulations are intended to protect such data as a patient's medical records and personal healthcare information. HIPAA affects organizations that transmit protected health information in electronic form (e.g. health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers). The law maintains that healthcare organizations implement a wide variety of safeguards and security best practices in order to adequately protect customer data. Full compliance requires that these entities understand the threats and liabilities and take proactive measures to maintain reasonable and appropriate safeguards in three areas: administrative, physical and technical.

The HIPAA Effect: Considerations for Fundraising After the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:19:44 -0800

Eight years after Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), professionals working in healthcare philanthropy have discovered that HIPAA was not the end of fundraising as one knew it. Initially, when HIPAA was enacted in 2000, there was great fear and uncertainty among healthcare providers and development officers. Reactions across the nation and among healthcare organizations varied widely: some predicted the end of healthcare fundraising, whereas other more rational people viewed it as a manageable challenge.

In the Labyrinth of Regulatory Compliance or How Not to Be Afraid of HIPAA

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:43:10 -0800

This whitepaper focuses on email security and retention considerations for the healthcare industry, focusing on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It provides detailed information about the HIPAA rules as they relate to email transmission, as well as recommendations on how a healthcare organization can ensure that its messaging infrastructure is compliant with HIPAA.

LogRhythm and HIPAA Compliance

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:00:12 -0800

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to ensure that personal information stored, accessed, or processed adheres to a set of guidelines or "Security Rules". These rules outline security measures that should be implemented to adequately secure all Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI). The Secretary of Health and Human Services enforces this law. Non-compliance can lead to civil monetary penalties and public distrust.

HIPAA Privacy & Security Laws: Corporate Privacy, Information Security, and Employee Development

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:02:08 -0800

The HIPAA law allows as workforce members to use patient information for treatment, payment or healthcare operations as defined by HIPAA and required by job responsibilities. The CHS Acceptable Use Policy IS.PHI 600.01 and Release/Review of PHI Policy PR.PHI 140.05 along with 22 other CHS policies present specific guidance for protecting all forms of patient information: electronic, written, and oral.

Privacy and Security of NPI

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:04:15 -0800

This paper provides an outline of the privacy issues raised by clinicians in sharing NPI information. While the National Provider Identifier is a HIPAA regulation, the privacy and security issues discussed in this white paper are not just dealing with HIPAA privacy and security. Concerns clinicians have raised about release of information are established as a pretext dealing with identity theft.

Meeting HIPAA Compliance With EventTracker

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:54:51 -0800

There are a number of steps a healthcare provider must undertake to meet the Technical Safeguards mandated in the Security Rules of Title II (Administrative Simplification) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA calls for tightly controlling and monitoring access to confidential patient information, and specifically calls out event logs as an important vehicle to meet compliance. This Paper describes how EventTracker from Prism Microsystems, Inc. can be used as the key component for managing the collection, storage and analysis of enterprise event log data. With EventTracker a healthcare provider or related business can be confident they have the solution in place to help effectively meet audit requirements.

Erie County's Human Services Department Turns to ZixCorp

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:30:07 -0800

Erie County of Pennsylvania's Human Services Department needed email encryption to send Protected Health Information (PHI) and the other sensitive data pertaining to their constituents. Erie County deployed the ZixCorp's Email Encryption Service that was easy to install and maintain and HIPAA lexicon plus the ability to create own policies.

Protecting Patients' Personal Data

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:27:03 -0800

For more than 60 years, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (RWJ Hamilton) has provided top-notch health care to communities within a five-county area of New Jersey. It needed email encryption to send Protected Health Information (PHI) and other sensitive data pertaining to their patients. University deployed ZixCorp's Email Encryption Service enabling HIPAA lexicon plus the ability to create own policies.

Reducing the Cost of Defensive Medicine Using the Internet

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:29:46 -0800

Defensive medicine consists of providing medical services that are not expected to benefit the patient, but minimize the risk of subsequent lawsuits. In that context, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rightly makes a virtue of privacy, but it can also bring about a financial burden - a burden that can best be met through a judicious use of the Internet and the latest developments in secure online communications.

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Medisoft Clinical®

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Enter a whole new level of efficiency, care and cost savings. Medisoft Clinical® combines the practice management (PM) features of Medisoft V15 with a proven electronic medical record (EMR) that has helped thousands of practices improve quality of care and financial performance. With Medisoft Clinical, you keep the PM you know and add the EMR that can take you to the next level of practice automation.

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Analyze the note with a sophisticated coding advisor for Evaluation and Management codes using both the 1995 and 1997 CMS Documentation Guidelines to optimize coding based on documentation. Support consultations and time-based CPT coding.
Load transcribed text and populate the entire patient chart including the problem list, medication list, medical histories and vital signs. Partially dictate a visit and have the transcribed text automatically go to the correct place in the note.
Import and export chart summary data using CCD or CCR formats. Communicate with other practice’s EMRs or with the patient’s personal health record (PHR).
When importing the data, choose which chart sections to update while still keeping an entire copy of the imported document.
Customized chart viewing by physician allows provider (and specialty) specific views for charts, chart summaries and flow charts.