Anyone here know about HIPAA regulations?

[haknwak]

Privacy and security laws regarding medical records handling etc. My wife runs a medical practice and needs to conform to HIPAA by April 2003. I did considerable research - see http://haknwak.shacknet.nu:911/hipaa_research - looking for a nice, simple but concise, guide to achieving conformance.

Any help or experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Tedob1]

Implementation Guides Adopted for use under HIPAA

http://hipaa.wpc-edi.com/HIPAA_40.asp

[m!thr!l]

Try http://www.ready4hipaa.com

They have some good information from an IT perspective. It basically comes down to information and how you choose to diseminate it. Any information that might identify a patient is protected, including account numbers, SSN, etc. There are even some very vague references to information like "Geographic regions smaller than a state" that are protected. The honest truth about this is that it affects all corporations, not just companies and individuals in the medical profession. If your company has employees and/or an HR department, then it could be spreading sensitive and protected information. She should consider protecting via encryption or prevention, any information about patients that leaves her office. I hope some of this helps.

Cheers,
m!thr!l

[haknwak]

Most Appreciated - that'll give her a little more to chew on.

[bucket]

If I were going to learn about the HIPPA regs, I might start here:

HIPPA link

Plus the Q&A section, there is a portion devoted to the text of the bill.

[mmelby]

Here is another very good HIPAA related link

http://www.hipaadvisory.com/