The health care industry accounts for 15% of the GDP of the U.S. and is the largest segment of the U.S. economy. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) directly impacts the entire health care industry – a $1.7 Trillion vertical. HIPAA is a comprehensive piece of legislation that includes the Administrative Simplification Title. It is this Title that sets specific requirements in the areas of Transactions and code sets, Identifiers, Privacy, and Security. Tied into these legislative requirements are compliance dates and penalties for violations. ecfirst.com specializes in delivering HIPAA compliance solutions.
"Health care is a vitally important industry that captures about one of every seven dollars spent in the United States. It is a 800-pound gorilla sitting quietly in the corner. Health care not only matters to the millions who invest in leading companies such as Johnson & Johnson, HCA and Medtronic, it affects our lives and the lives of our children."
Clayton M. Christensen, Seeing What’s Next |
The HIPAA Security Rule identifies standards and implementation specifications that organizations must meet in order to become compliant. The state of compliance must be maintained by all covered entities. Failing to comply can result in severe civil and criminal penalties.
Health care service providers, insurance companies, and state and local government agencies need to ensure their employees are trained and understand the HIPAA Privacy and Security requirements.
Many organizations are just beginning to consider steps to address these requirements. HIPAA Compliance and Security Officers need to thoroughly understand the legislative requirements and can follow ecfirst.com’s BizShield™ Seven Steps methodology to drive security compliance initiatives.
The HIPAA Security Rule is resulting in a significant deployment of security technology in the health care industry.
| Health care today is about "on demand access" to a patient’s entire medical history. This requires a "healthy dose of IT." Without the correct information infrastructure it is difficult to securely deliver critical patient information wherever, whenever. HIPAA Security is about best practices for health care security.
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ecfirst.com assists all types of organizations with their compliance initiatives for a secure information infrastructure that is compliant with the HIPAA regulation. ecfirst.com can help you with your HIPAA challenges and priorities. ecfirst.com solutions help your organization implement the security safeguards required as a result of the HIPAA legislation. ecfirst.com, an Inc. 500 business, serves a Who’s Who client list that includes numerous hospitals, state and county governments, and hundreds of organizations. Call Lorna Waggoner and ask her for our white paper on the HIPAA Security Rule. She can be reached at 1.877.899.9974 x17. Talk to us to learn more about our HIPAA compliance solutions.
