News Briefs
Survey: Create stronger patient privacy rules
American hospitals and health care payer organizations are preparing to meet growing consumer and governmental concerns about patient information security and privacy, according to a survey conducted by Phoenix Health Systems in Montgomery Village, MD.
Phoenix’s October on-line survey of 468 health care industry representatives indicated that the majority of hospitals, payers, and other health care organizations acknowledge that new regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) require their immediate response. Under HIPAA, health care organizations must comply with new security and privacy standards to protect individually identifiable health information.
Most organizations’ HIPAA-related efforts are focused first on building internal awareness of the public’s privacy concerns, the relevance of HIPAA, and the implications for health care organizations’ operations. More than half have begun the process of assessing their organizations’ systems, procedures, and practices to identify privacy and security vulnerabilities. Their next steps will include actual compliance planning, internal implementation and staff training.
Complete fall 2000 HIPAA survey results, including graphics, are available at www.hipaadvisory.com/action/survey/fall2000.htm.
Road opens up for electronic transactions
The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN), which took effect Oct. 1, "paves the way to a paperless health record," says Gwen Hughes, RHIA, a health information management practice manager at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) in Chicago. Hughes published her thoughts in the November/ December issue of the Journal of AHIMA. "Transactions that previously had to be documented and retained on paper or accurate reproductions thereof, can now be obtained and retained electronically."
E-SIGN primarily states that a signature, contract, or other record of a transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form, Hughes says. The law opens additional possibilities for HIM professionals, including:
• Consumers who wish to do so prior to admission, might register; be provided the notice of information practices required by the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and some state laws; peruse and sign the necessary financial documents; and complete consent forms while still at home.
• Consumers could electronically request or authorize disclosure of their health records.
They might be able to pay any related fees via
e-commerce.
For a further discussion of the law and its repercussions, visit the Web site www.ahima.org/inconf/inconf.0011.1.html.
Feds offer answers to your questions
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has posted on its Web site 23 new answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) on corporate integrity agreement (CIA) billing reviews.
Most corporate integrity agreements or settlement agreements with integrity provisions (agreements) require that a billing review be conducted, either by an independent review organization (IRO) or in some cases by the provider, with a verification review performed by the IRO.
Over the past several years, the language used in these CIAs and agreements to describe the billing reviews has evolved from being general in nature to fairly specific.
For this reason, the OIG has updated its original list and has added a specific index of topics covered by these FAQs, as follows:
• reporting of overpayments;
• independence of an IRO;
• selecting an IRO;
• material violations;
• CIA billing reviews.
The access the FAQs, go to www.dhhs.gov/progorg/oig/cia/ciafaq1.htm.
Four major health care studies released
In conjunction with leading businesses, the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) in Washington, DC, released four major studies in October that look at prospects for a defined contribution system for employment-sponsored health insurance, the burgeoning seniors marketplace, insurers’ communication with consumers, and insurers’ use of technology. These studies include:
• PricewaterhouseCoopers’ "Defined Contribution: Is It In Your Future?" This study defines "defined contribution health benefits" (DCHB), looks at factors and trends affecting the development of DCHB, and examines market barriers to the establishment of DCHB as an accepted health benefit.
• Tillinghast-Towers Perrin’s "Convergence of Products in the Senior Marketplace." This study examines how insurers are planning to deal
with the fastest growing segment of the U.S.
population.
• Xerox Corp.’s "Strengthening Consumer Relationships Through Strategic Communications." This study examines how health insurers can improve communications with consumers.
• IBM’s "Leveraging Information Technology to Solve the Privacy Puzzle." This study examines privacy issues as health insurance companies increase their use of the Internet.
Brief abstracts of each study are available at www.hiaa.org/news/news-state/001031 abstracts.htm. The complete studies are available at www.hiaa.org/forum21.htm.
E-health groups have a quorum
Three Internet health organizations announced in October that they were forming a coordinating committee to collaborate on ethical conduct codes. The committee has a goal of ensuring a system of e-health codes that is understandable to the public and that uses a common terminology. The organizations involved in this committee are:
• Hi-Ethics (Health Internet Ethics), a collation of 20 of the most widely used U.S.-based consumer health Internet sites and information providers.
• Health on the Net Foundation, a not-for-profit portal for medical and health-related information group based in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Internet Healthcare Coalition’s e-Health Ethics Initiative. The Internet Healthcare Coalition is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization. Its initiative aims to provide
a forum for the development of a universal
set of ethical principles for health-related
Web sites.
The first step of the collaboration will be the development of a common glossary of definitions and terms for verification and compliance efforts. E-health consumers should be able to easily compare security and privacy statements using universal descriptions. The common terminology will be used by the three organizations when communicating future developments. The groups hope their efforts may set domestic standards and may eventually lead to cooperation on an international level.
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