HIPAA hurdles loom as deadline approaches

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

With the deadline to meet privacy provisions in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act less than a week away, the crowd in the E-Town theater at FOSE today complained about some of the challenges posed by the new rules.<br>

With the deadline to meet privacy provisions in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) less than a week away, the crowd in the E-Town theater at FOSE today complained about some of the challenges posed by the new rules.

Panelist Sharon Arndt, HIPAA compliance manager with the IT Department of Fairfax County, Va., said e-mail is one of the biggest hurdles of HIPAA compliance. According to HIPAA privacy rules, no longer can doctors or other health care providers write about sensitive patient information such as mental health support in an e-mail message.

E-mail can be FOIA'd, which could violate a patient's right to privacy, said Jon Frey, director of IT for the Health and Human Services Department of Montgomery County, Md. So as of next week, health care providers can no longer put protected client health information in an e-mail.

'You've had doctors who've been doing this for years, e-mailing data back and forth about patients,' an audience member said. 'How can we make a reasonable effort to comply with this unreasonable law?' he asked.

Organizations are looking at how this e-mail can be encrypted, said Mike Huddleston, a manager with Fairfax County's IT Department. 'We're working on getting our e-mail Federal Information Processing Standard 140-certified,' he said.

Huddleston says he 'was never a big fan of public-key infrastructure. It's incredibly hard to administer all those public keys, when you have an organization with 4,000 employees. I think it was a fad.'

'I don't think the original crafters of HIPAA realized the broader implications of it,' Frey said.

Montgomery County has 130 applications, 50 of which have implications for HIPAA, Frey said. One good thing that has come out of HIPAA is that the county is consolidating the 50 systems, which will save the county 'massive amounts of money.' The duplicate data entry that was required for the 50 standalone applications added about 45 minutes of labor to each transaction, he said.

Tom Davy, former Navy HIPAA program manager and now on the staff of George Washington University, said the main challenge of HIPAA is the cultural change at the root of it. 'We had staff members who would leave patients' charts hanging with the face up. We need people to subscribe to HIPAA, not just comply with it.'

The panelist agreed that HIPAA isn't solely an IT issue, although it's often treated as such.

'HIPAA is as mundane as putting locks on file cabinets,' Frey said.

Even answering machines have to change as a result of HIPAA, Huddleston said. 'We had two nurses sharing a phone. One would have to listen through the other's voice mail messages to get to hers.'

Training is also a daunting issue. Montgomery County is using an online HIPAA module through Maryland's Health Department that provides basic training. Huddleston said his county had to train 700 employees over 500 square miles.

'People out there are running scared,' an audience member said.

NEXT STORY: E-gov at FOSE

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.