Countdown to HIPAA Compliance: Preparing for the September 23, 2013 Deadline

Why Should You Attend:

All kinds of covered entities, and now, business associates of covered entities and their subcontractors as well, need to review their HIPAA compliance, policies, and procedures to see if they are prepared to meet the changes in the rules. Many business associates won’t even be aware they are now under the rules, and some subcontractors of business associates may not even be aware that they handle any protected health information and therefore now fall under the regulations.

During this session, the new regulations will be reviewed and their effects on usual practices will be discussed, as will what policies need to be changed and how. We will show what policies and evidence you need to produce if you are audited by the HHS Office of Civil Rights. Now that there is a legislative mandate to audit compliance, and a random audit plan well under way, you need to be prepared to respond to audit requests. It’s never been more important to review your HIPAA compliance and meet the new requirements.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• The new regulations will be reviewed and their effects on usual practices will be discussed, as well as what policies need to be changed and how
• Learn how the new regulations change the way individuals have access to their records, and how much they can find out about who has accessed their records
• Find out about how Individuals can now request certain restrictions on disclosures that you must honor
• The features that must be available in EHR systems to support the rules will be described
• Learn about the new requirements for disclosers of health information to apply “minimum necessary” standards
• Understand the new requirements for Business Associates to comply with HIPAA privacy protections and security safeguards and how BAs are subject to enforcement and penalties directly by HHS
• Find out about how new limitations on marketing and fund-raising may change how entities can reach out to individuals
• We will discuss what policies and evidence you need to produce if you are audited by the HHS Office of Civil Rights
• Learn all about how new audit and penalty requirements increase the need to make sure you are in compliance before HHS OCR knocks on the door

Who will benefit:

This course will benefit medical offices, practice groups, hospitals, academic medical centers, insurers and business associates (shredding, data storage, systems vendors, billing services, etc). The following personnel will find this session valuable:

• Compliance director
• CEO
• CFO
• Privacy Officer
• Security Officer
• Information Systems Manager
• HIPAA Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Health Information Manager
• Healthcare Counsel/lawyer
• Office Manager
• Contracts Manager

Instructor Profile:

Jim Sheldon-Dean is the founder and director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm founded in 1982, providing information privacy and security regulatory compliance services to a wide variety of health care entities.

Sheldon-Dean serves on the HIMSS Information Systems Security Workgroup, has co-chaired the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange Privacy and Security Workgroup, and is a recipient of the WEDI 2011 Award of Merit. He is a frequent speaker regarding HIPAA and information privacy and security compliance issues at seminars and conferences, including speaking engagements at numerous regional and national healthcare association conferences and conventions and the annual NIST/OCR HIPAA Security Conference in Washington, D.C.

Sheldon-Dean has more than 30 years of experience in policy analysis and implementation, business process analysis, information systems and software development. His experience includes leading the development of health care related Web sites; award-winning, best-selling commercial utility software; and mission-critical, fault-tolerant communications satellite control systems. In addition, he has eight years of experience doing hands-on medical work as a Vermont certified volunteer emergency medical technician. Sheldon-Dean received his B.S. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Vermont and his master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Topic Background:

The September 23, 2013 deadline for compliance with the updated HIPAA rules based on the HITECH changes, released in the Omnibus HIPAA Update Final Rule of January 25, 2013, is looming on the horizon.

New regulations around the release of electronic records and restrictions on disclosures are creating new burdens that your EHR and your medical records department must deal with. There are new patient rights and new provider obligations under the new final rules. You will even have to update your HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices to show how you support the new patient rights under HIPAA as amended by HITECH.

New regulations on marketing simplify determining what needs to have an authorization to be performed, but provide greater restrictions on the use of PHI. Fundraising, however, sees a loosening of restrictions that many institutions have ignored, but more stringent requirements for honoring opt-outs; policies and practices must be adjusted to the new rules.

All kinds of covered entities, and now, business associates of covered entities and their subcontractors as well, need to review their HIPAA compliance, policies, and procedures to see if they are prepared to meet the changes in the rules. Many business associates won’t even be aware they are now under the rules, and some subcontractors of business associates may not even be aware that they handle any protected health information and therefore now fall under the regulations.

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