AdvisorMail’s email archiving & email compliance solution gives your organization a secure system with state-of-the art encryption
to ensure that electronic healthcare records meet HIPAA compliance requirements.
LiveOffice Corporation’s real time storage, search, discovery, supervision and enforcement capabilities are in-use by
organizations ranging from members of the Fortune 500 to small business owners.
WHAT IS HIPAA?
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (and is also known as the Kennedy-Kasselbaum Act). HIPAA
calls for national standards for electronic healthcare transactions, among other requirements.
HIPAA requires that organizations that deal with electronic patient healthcare information protect the security and
confidentiality of that data.
WHAT ORGANIZATIONS ARE IMPACTED?
Virtually all organizations that deal with electronic patient healthcare information are affected. This includes
(but is not limited to): healthcare providers, health plans, physicians’ offices, public health authorities, healthcare
clearinghouses, pharmacies, organ, blood and sperm donation banks, and long-term care facilities.
Also included are those entities that handle, exchange or store private electronic health information, such as
self-ensured employers, life insurers, billing agencies, information systems vendors, various service organizations, and universities.
In many cases, HIPAA provisions have led to extensive changes with regard to medical recordkeeping and billing systems.
WHEN WAS HIPAA ENACTED?
HIPAA is currently law. It was enacted on August 21, 1996.
Most organizations have 24 months from the effective dates of the final rules to achieve compliance. The Security Rules were published
in 2003, requiring compliance by April 21, 2005.
WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH HIPAA?
HIPAA includes severe penalties, both civil and criminal, for non-compliance. These include: Civil fines of $100 per
violation, up to $25,000 for multiple violations of the same standard in a calendar year. Criminal fines up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment
up to 10 years for knowing misuse of individually identifiable health information.
Individuals also have the right to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) for violations of
HIPAA regulations. HHS may investigate and penalize organizations.
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS OF HIPAA?
There are several parts to HIPAA’s “Administrative Simplification” provision. Our focus here is on the Security Rule
section.
Security Rule:
-
Mandates the security of electronic medical records pertaining to an individual, requiring that covered entities ensure the
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all electronic protected health information that the entity creates, receives, maintains,
or transmits.
-
Requires entities to protect against any reasonably anticipated threats or hazards to the security or integrity of all
electronic protected health information, protect against reasonably anticipated uses or disclosures of such information, and ensure
compliance by their workforce.
-
Specifically, these standards concentrate on three aspects of security:
• Physical security – requires protection of electronic systems, equipment and data
• Technical security – authentication and encryption to be used to control access to data
• Administrative security – security responsibility is to be assigned to an individual
LiveOffice’s AdvisorMail HIPAA meets all of the electronic data management and retention requirements, including encryption,
as set forth by HIPAA.
If you are interested in understanding how LiveOffice’s message archiving and management solution can help your organization
develop a cost-effective means of complying with HIPAA regulations, please contact our Business Development Department at 800-251-3863,
or go to advisormail.net.
|
