Some call it HIPAA on Steroids. Others simply call it HIPAA II. Technically, it's the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. But however you label it, the HITECH Act spells out tougher data security requirements for all health care organizations as well as their business associates.
For physician group practices, responding to requests from patients, lawyers, insurers and others for copies of patients' medical records is a time-consuming, labor-intensive headache. But one New York practice has found that secure e-mail is a cure for that pain, as well as a remedy for other communication maladies.
The HITECH Act should be a wake-up call to physician group practices of all sizes regarding the need to take data security seriously, a consultant who advises practices stresses. And that means following the right procedures as well as using the right technologies, says Rosemarie Nelson, principal at MGMA Consulting...
The single most important step hospitals should take to comply with the HITECH Act is to retrain all employees, physicians and even volunteers on how to maintain the privacy and security of personal health information. That's the advice of Dan Rode, a regulatory expert at the American Health Information Management...
(Part four)
The tough enforcement provisions of the HITECH Act may scare some healthcare organizations into finally getting their data security act together.
One goal of Duke University's new health informatics program, which launches this fall, is to build awareness of information security and privacy issues among future IT leaders. That's the word from W. Ed Hammond, Ph.D., director of the new Duke Center for Health Informatics.
The spotlight is intensifying on the need to use the latest technologies to ensure the privacy and security of healthcare information, especially electronic health records.
That's largely because the HITECH Act set tougher penalties for violations of the HIPAA security and privacy rules and ramped up enforcement.
Healthcare information and specifically Electronic Patient Healthcare (ePHI) has been in the news recently and featured as part of healthcare reform. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) component of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 has not received as...
When private medical records are breached, healthcare service providers suffer damage to their brand, reputation, loss of trust from their patients, and severe financial repercussions. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) mandates that appropriate administrative, technical, and...
New HIPAA Security Rule enforcement began in February 2010 under the HITECH Act. Healthcare providers and their business associates that fail to secure protected health information are now subject to new penalties. Register for this webinar to learn:
Strategies for protecting your patients and your business;
...
(Part three)
The most significant security provision of the HITECH Act is its explicit requirement for healthcare organizations to promptly notify individuals of data security breaches.
A former patient care assistant at a Houston hospital was sentenced to 60 months in prison on February 3 after pleading guilty to bank fraud and stealing the identities of patients.
Provisions of the bill would help develop a skilled government infosec workforce, prioritize federal cybersecurity R&D, improve the transfer of cybersecurity technologies to business and promote cybersecurity education and awareness.
Two federal advisory committees will meet later in February to consider whether to recommend modifying two proposed electronic health record rules that affect healthcare information security.
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