The proposed meaningful use stage 2 requirements were posted yesterday. The requirements are over 450 pages so we are still going through them and trying to digest them. As of now, two major IT related items jump out at us. The first IT related objective is focused on protecting and securing patient information. In stage...
As John Lynn and Neil Versel have both reported, it looks like the Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 proposal will be out in the next few weeks. One area of interest will be the wording around the use of encryption to protect patient information. Currently the HIPAA and HITECH regulations do not make the use...
There is a lot to know about HIPAA but let’s take a look at 6 things that you must know. HIPAA is not optional A lot of practices feel they are exempt from the HIPAA regulations. This may stem from the fact that “small practices” were granted a 1 year extension to comply with the...
A recent incident shows just how important it is to train all workforce members on the HIPAA regulations. Notice how I used the words workforce members and not just employees. A temporary staff member of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center recently posted patient information on Facebook. The temporary staff member also made fun of...
2011 has been a great year for us and we couldn’t be more excited for 2012. We had the opportunity to work with some really great people at a lot of different medical practices throughout the United States. We got to show that the HIPAA Secure Now! process really works and can help practices with...
Kim Falkner from SPAMfighter is our guest blogger and gives her insight into hosted vs. in-house SPAM filters. It is a good topic because with SPAM comes risks to electronic protected health information (ePHI). Hosted spam filter? Better than in-house software? We do not have to delve on the fact that spam is an annoyance...
The Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) has announced that they will perform 150 HIPAA audits by the end of 2012. The chance of you getting audited is very small but what if you open up your mail one day and found a notice that your medical practice has been select to be audited?...
Leon Rodriquez the head of OCR, in an interview, stated that the 150 HIPAA audits is just a pilot program. OCR recently hired the consulting firm KPMG to launch a HIPAA compliance audit program, with 150 audits anticipated by the end of 2012. Because this is the first time the office is conducting audits, the...
Howard Anderson, Executive Editor over at HealthcareInfoSecurity.com had an insightful interview with Leon Rodriguez, the new director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Rodriquez a former prosecutor and defense lawyer talks about his priorities as the head of OCR. He states: Making enforcement a priority (because) enforcement promotes compliance...
Every day we work with Practice Administrators (PAs) to help them with HIPAA compliance. It is amazing how much responsibility is placed on a PA’s plate. They are involved with hiring and firing of employees, billing, scheduling, personnel issues, insurance issues, patient issues, equipment issues, technology issues, provider issues and compliance issues. It is amazing...
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