HIPAA Privacy In 2013 and Beyond: An Outlook On Data Encryption, Securing Patient Information and the Health Information Network

Why Should You Attend:

The expectation of the U.S. Federal Government is that all health information organizations (HIOs)-business associates, clearing houses, third party billers and health insurance providers will ensure patients from undue harm, relative to their personal health records- patient health information (PHI)/(ePHI) and patient identifiable information (PII), by implementing an secure electronic infrastructure and clear and deliberate policies/procedures.

This webinar will help you to understand how to implement strategies to insulate your organization from heightened scrutiny under the umbrella of the HITECH Act and the best practices to protect patient data and look to the future of the HIE. Specifically delineate what is “unsecured protected health information”. You will learn the expectations of the HITECH Act relevant to your company’s responsibility. You will be exposed to the background of HIPAA legislation and the ramifications of the HITECH Act as it relates specifically to the electronic storage, transfer and use of patient information. We will discuss procedures that will help strengthen your organization’s technological security in the evolution of electronic patient information in 2013 and beyond.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

In this webinar we will discuss the specific requisites of encryption in compliance with HIPAA, specifically the HITECH Act the appropriate policies and procedures and discuss the needed preparation for the HIE network:

• The enhancement of HIPAA through the HITECH Act;
• The OCR audit requirements;
• HITECH Act encryption strategies;
• Best practices for securing patient data;
• Privacy's Rule's notice of privacy practices;
• Openness and Transparency Principle of the Privacy and Security Framework;
• Explanation of the HIE Network;
• How to prepare for the future of patient data security.

Who Will Benefit:

This webinar is designed to provide information regarding information security to:

• HIPAA Privacy managers/professionals
• Compliance managers/professionals
• CIOs
• IT managers
• Anyone responsible for ensuring data protection within the organization.

Healthcare vendors (billing service providers, software providers and insurance providers) will benefit from this session too.

Instructor Profile:

Coy Murchison, is a Compliance professional with over 10 years of progressive compliance experience. She has experience in health care compliance, as well as, title/escrow and non-profit industries. Coy Murchison is well versed in technology security as it relates to HIPAA. She serves as a consultant for Agilishare, a SharePoint Architectural Company. She was selected to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study Health Information/Informatics Technology. She has helped organization build compliance frameworks for the HITECH Act and she lectures on the expectations of the HIE and how it relates to the future of information security and compliance. Coy is a graduate of Paul Quinn College in Secondary Education and Seton-Hall University Law School’s Compliance Certification Program.

Topic Background:

Data security is becoming a growing concern for healthcare organizations and for obvious reasons- with the Office of Civil Rights conducting HIPAA audits and evaluating organizations’ electronic security, lengthening the reach of HIPAA through the HITECH Act and with the introduction of the Health Information Exchange (HIE), security, specifically data encryption and security protocols are critical to an organization’s success. Many CIOs now list security as one of their biggest concerns in the new age of electronic health information (ePHI). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' recent annual report on data breaches, 207 breaches involving 500 or more individuals occurred in 2010, and these breaches affected more than 5.4 million individuals.

Understanding your organization’s role in securing this data, under the HITECH Act and the difference between HIPAA legislation and the far reaching arm of the HITECH Act, is critical to surviving an audit and essentially protecting your patients from identity theft and exposing them to wrongful disclosure of their health information. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is continuing its audits through 2013-2014. The OCR will conclude 115 audits by the end 2012. These audits helped to identify collective weaknesses of the audited organizations. Consequently, we can presume that the next batch of audits will take an in depth view at the philosophies, strategies and protocols of the organizations security measures. OCR will pursue clear violations of HIPAA, such as, a lack of comprehensive risk assessment and policies and procedures for physical, administration and electronic security of ePHI. With the government issuing in an HIE network, data security and encryption methods is vital to this new era of patient information.

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