HCPro.com: Health Information Compliance Insider

Every issue of Health Information Compliance Insider is packed with ready-to-use information worth thousands of dollars to you and your organization, like advance warning from Washington on when to expect changes to and guidance on HIPAA regulations and compliance advice from leading health care lawyers.

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August 2008 (Volume 5, Issue 8)	view entire issue

Train patient access staff members on HIPAA
Editor's note: The following article is the fourth of five in a series about effectively training specific groups of staff members on HIPAA privacy and security compliance. Your patient access staff members are often the first to greet your patients. They serve an important role in providing excellent customer service and ensuring patient satisfaction for repeat business. But their responsibilities don't end there. Registration staff members are also often the first to encounter sensitive demographic, insurance, billing, and clinical patient information. Educating them on HIPAA privacy and security compliance is essential.

What you may not know about HIPAA: Interesting facts and little-known requirements
You probably have a thorough knowledge of HIPAA-protecting patient information is a big part of your everyday job. But perhaps you missed a detail along the way. So HICI asked a group of industry experts to brainstorm about the following little-known HIPAA facts: Did you know . although most covered entities have established appropriate data backup practices, many overlook 45 CFR 164.308(a)(7), which requires periodic data recovery testing? Covered entities often experience problems when attempting to recover backed-up data after the loss or corruption of original data, says Chris Apgar, CISSP, president of Apgar & Associates, LLC, in Portland, OR.

Medical identity theft an increasing challenge
It's a hot topic everywhere-in television commercials, movies, and on the nightly news. And it's a growing concern: It's identity theft. Traditional identity theft is a familiar problem in the United States. Victims of identity theft brace for its effect on their finances and credit ratings. Medical identity theft is less well known, but it is just as problematic for patients, hospitals, and insurers. Protecting against medical identity theft is a tall order for overburdened and understaffed hospitals, but its importance can't be overstated. Medical identity theft has significant short-term and long-term implications for everyone involved. That's why educating staff members on what medical identity theft is, whom it affects, how it affects them, and how to fight it is essential.

Other recently-published articles from Health Information Compliance Insider:

Protect your organization’s wallet: Comply with PCI DSS

Address data encryption in 2009

Physician offices: Tackle a different set of privacy training challenges

OCR complaints: Simple steps to smooth resolutions

BA agreements: Prevent problems and eliminate loopholes

2009 HIPAA forecast

Certified career boosters: How credentials help you

Ensure safe transfer of PHI when selling a practice

Honeypots: A sweet tool you can use to monitor snooping staff members

Discipline with the intent to educate when responding to HIPAA violations to minimize future incidents

Disaster preparedness: Design, update, and practice your disaster recovery and business continuity plans

Keep cell phone use compliant

Attention to detail, information exchange process makes Oregon DHS a compliance success story

Offshoring a potentially risky cost saver for organizations

HIPAA compliance in the ER

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