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Survey shows almost half of facilities have not addressed all privacy requirements

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, April 24, 2003

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The privacy rule's compliance date passed two weeks ago, but 48% of organizations have yet to address all of the rule's requirements, according to the recent HIPAA Weekly Advisor Privacy Compliance Reader Survey.

Respondents listed lack of time as the biggest compliance obstacle (64%), and 60% said they are still working on business associate agreements (facilities have an additional year to develop HIPAA-compliant contracts). 45% said they are still developing policies and procedures.

Other results of the survey include the following:

• 45% of respondents said they have addressed all requirements and are in compliance
• 29% said they still haven't trained all employees
• 14% said lack of administrative buy-in and support is the biggest compliance obstacle

The survey was sent electronically April 18 to subscribers of HIPAA Weekly Advisor, and 527 people responded. Of those respondents, 41% were privacy officials, 23% were compliance officers, 21% were health information management professionals, and 11% were administrators. Others included office managers, risk managers, and information technology professionals.

Almost half of respondents worked at either hospitals (32%) or hospital systems (17%). Other settings included physician practices, long-term care facilities, and home health agencies.

Editor's note: Look for more survey results in future issues of HIPAA Weekly Advisor.

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