Answer Upon
#1 in Business Subscribe Email Print

You are here: Home > Legal > Regulatory Compliance > Electronic Medical Billing Software, HIPAA Compliance, and Role Based Access Control

Tags

  • purchasing
  • unauthorized
  • management
  • making assumptions
  • other healthcare
  • personal health

  • Links

  • Hypothyroidism Treatment Options
  • Taking Stock Without Judgment
  • Fishing Reels 101 - Part 1
  • Answer Upon - Electronic Medical Billing Software, HIPAA Compliance, and Role Based Access Control

    South Carolina Refinance Loans With Bad Credit in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, etc
    The past decade has been great for homeowners, whether you live in the Northeast or in the South. With homeownership rates at nearly 75% in most states, there is a lot of home equity that can be leveraged for debt consoldation, home refurbishment projects, etc.If you live in South Carolina and need to refinance your existing mortgage loan for a HELOC (home equity line of credit), Home equity loan, Cash out refinance loan or Debt consolidation loan - there are many loan products that are available on the market.But what happens, if you happen to have bad credit or "poor credit" - can you still get a refinance loan?The short answer is "yes" - if you do your research. The fact is, the internet has made it easier to find all types of loan, even if, you have bad credit. Whether purchasing a home, refinancing an existing mortgage loan or purchasing a car - you can use the internet to research lenders, who specialize in subprime loans.What i
    >
  • Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
  • Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
  • Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
  • Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
  • Scale (how many patient records threatened?).
  • HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of r

    Guaranteed Personal Loan Lender
    If you are looking for a good loan lender who can offer good guaranteed personal loans then here are a few tips to help you through the selection process. While the industry today offers a wide range of lenders and loan options, one must choose the lender carefully, as the wrong decision can prove expensive. Here are the issues to consider.Planning the right loan and lenderGood planning is the key to a successful loan and a good lender. To obtain a good loan from a good lender, plan your requirements carefully. Understand what you need the loan for and decide the amount required and what you can afford to repay every month. It may be worth checking your credit score that can be easily obtained (in some cases for free). Based on that information you can find the loan rates that you are likely to be offered. Once armed with that information you can compare information from different lenders. The simplest place to do so is online. Many sites like moneyeve
    HIPAA compliance requires special focus and effort as failure to comply carries significant risk of damage and penalties. A practice with multiple separate systems for patient scheduling, electronic medical records, and billing, requires multiple separate HIPAA management efforts. This article presents an integrated approach to HIPAA compliance and outlines key HIPAA terminology, principles, and requirements to help the practice owner to ensure HIPAA compliance by medical billing service and software vendors.

    The last decade of the previous century witnessed accelerating proliferation of digital technology in health care, which, along with reduced costs and greater service quality, introduced new and greater risks for accidental disclosure of personal health information.

    The Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 by Congress to establish national standards for privacy and security of personal health data. The Privacy Rule, written by the US Department of Health and Human Services took effect on April 14, 2003.

    Failure to comply with HIPAA risks accreditation and reputation damage, lawsuits by federal government, financial penalties, ranging from $100 to $250,000, and imprisonment, ranging from one year to ten years.

    Protected Health Information (PHI)

    The key term of HIPAA is Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes anything that can be used to identify an individual and any information shared with other health care providers or clearinghouses in any media (digital, verbal, recorded voice, faxed, printed, or written). Information that can be used to identify an individual includes:

    1. Name
    2. Dates (except year)
    3. Zip code of more than 3 digits, telephone and fax numbers, email
    4. Social security numbers
    5. Medical record numbers
    6. Health plan numbers
    7. License numbers
    8. Photographs

    Information shared with other healthcare providers or clearinghouses

    1. Nursing and physician notes
    2. Billing and other treatment records

    Principles of HIPAA

    HIPAA intends to allow smooth flow of PHI for healthcare operations subject to patient's consent but prohibit any flow of unauthorized PHI for any other purposes. Healthcare operations include treatment, payment, care quality assessment, competence review training, accreditation, insurance rating, auditing, and legal procedures.

    HIPAA promotes fair information practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed

    1. Access to PHI,
    2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
    3. Knowledge of others who use PHI

    Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must

    1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
    2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations

    HIPAA Implementation Process

    HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.

    A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about

    1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
    2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
    3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
    4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
    5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).

    HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of re

    For Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Small Publications Can Have Great Publicity Impact
    Just because a publication is small doesn't mean that getting your name in it won't have great impact.Trade on the reputation of the tradesSome of the trade publications have very loyal audiences who are much more likely to trust someone they see there than someone on the local news or in The Wall Street Journal. Now I'm not talking about the trade publication for your profession – the only people you’ll reach are your competitors. Get yourself in the publications your prospects and clients read!Don’t forget the Sewer Cleaner Association’s newsletterIt's a great to get yourself in the newsletters of the associations your prospects in that niche belong to. Whatever your market is, you can bet it has a professional or trade association. Sure, their newsletters are “smaller.” But there’s nothing better or more tightly focused on reaching your targets – and no one else!Offer yourself as a guest columnistUnli
    passed in 1996 by Congress to establish national standards for privacy and security of personal health data. The Privacy Rule, written by the US Department of Health and Human Services took effect on April 14, 2003.

    Failure to comply with HIPAA risks accreditation and reputation damage, lawsuits by federal government, financial penalties, ranging from $100 to $250,000, and imprisonment, ranging from one year to ten years.

    Protected Health Information (PHI)

    The key term of HIPAA is Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes anything that can be used to identify an individual and any information shared with other health care providers or clearinghouses in any media (digital, verbal, recorded voice, faxed, printed, or written). Information that can be used to identify an individual includes:

    1. Name
    2. Dates (except year)
    3. Zip code of more than 3 digits, telephone and fax numbers, email
    4. Social security numbers
    5. Medical record numbers
    6. Health plan numbers
    7. License numbers
    8. Photographs

    Information shared with other healthcare providers or clearinghouses

    1. Nursing and physician notes
    2. Billing and other treatment records

    Principles of HIPAA

    HIPAA intends to allow smooth flow of PHI for healthcare operations subject to patient's consent but prohibit any flow of unauthorized PHI for any other purposes. Healthcare operations include treatment, payment, care quality assessment, competence review training, accreditation, insurance rating, auditing, and legal procedures.

    HIPAA promotes fair information practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed

    1. Access to PHI,
    2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
    3. Knowledge of others who use PHI

    Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must

    1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
    2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations

    HIPAA Implementation Process

    HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.

    A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about

    1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
    2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
    3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
    4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
    5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).

    HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of r

    Cultivating An Image Of Success
    Style, poise and flair are qualities that are difficult to define, but easy to spot. Everyone knows someone who is graced with them, and, chances are, that person is at or on the way to the top of his or her profession.Certainly a winning image isn’t the only factor that determines career success, but it is an important component. In today’s highly competitive business world the quest for corporate advancement is complicated by the changing nature of the workplace.Diversity, job mobility and internationalization present new challenges. Corporate restructuring, downsizing and fierce competition for advancement mean that success requires more than good work and positive attitude. Without the right professional image, even loyal, reliable workers will be more likely to get pink slips than merit badges.Many people think that all you need are excellent skills to be successful, but in fact, to move up the corporate ladder today you have to understand
  • Dates (except year)
  • Zip code of more than 3 digits, telephone and fax numbers, email
  • Social security numbers
  • Medical record numbers
  • Health plan numbers
  • License numbers
  • Photographs
  • Information shared with other healthcare providers or clearinghouses

    1. Nursing and physician notes
    2. Billing and other treatment records

    Principles of HIPAA

    HIPAA intends to allow smooth flow of PHI for healthcare operations subject to patient's consent but prohibit any flow of unauthorized PHI for any other purposes. Healthcare operations include treatment, payment, care quality assessment, competence review training, accreditation, insurance rating, auditing, and legal procedures.

    HIPAA promotes fair information practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed

    1. Access to PHI,
    2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
    3. Knowledge of others who use PHI

    Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must

    1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
    2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations

    HIPAA Implementation Process

    HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.

    A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about

    1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
    2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
    3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
    4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
    5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).

    HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of r

    3 Special Text Effects for Web Headers and eBook Covers
    Here are three commonly used and effective text effects that are used in web headers, ebook covers and other web graphics.Outline – This refers to the effect where each character has an outline around the colored body of the character. The vast majority of the time, this outline is a different color than the character color. However, you can add a same-color outline when you want to “fatten up” some characters. Typically, you would want to choose an outline color that will provide good contrast with the background to make the characters stand out sharply against the background and does not clash with the color of the character.Drop Shadow – As the name implies, a drop shadow is a layer of color (often a contrasting color with the text), that has the same shape as each of the characters. This special effect gives the appearance that the characters are floating just above the background. This can give the illusion that the text is 3-dimensional.Gl
    nformation practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed
    1. Access to PHI,
    2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
    3. Knowledge of others who use PHI

    Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must

    1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
    2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations

    HIPAA Implementation Process

    HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.

    A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about

    1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
    2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
    3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
    4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
    5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).

    HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of r

    Search Engine Copywriting: Focus on One Topic
    Perhaps the simplest of all the lessons I have learned about writing for search engines is to keep my pages simple. That is to say, whether I am thinking about my readers or about Google, there is a huge advantage to keeping most of your pages confined to a single topic.There are three approaches I take to the creation of a page, and each has a significant impact on how high the listing for that page appears on Google.>> #1 – When I don’t think about Google and cover multiple topics.There are times when a page is put up simply for the benefit of my readers and, for one reason or another, covers a number of different topics.A simple example of this would be a page in the Excess Voice newsletter archives. I archive all issues, so visitors can browse their way through previous articles and reviews.From Google’s point of view, these pages are very unfocused. A particular newsletter might include an article on one subject, a review on a
    >
  • Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
  • Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
  • Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
  • Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
  • Scale (how many patient records threatened?).
  • HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of review seminars for personnel.

    Technology Requirements for HIPAA Compliance

    Technology implementation of HIPAA proceeds in stages from logical data definition to physical data center to network.

    1. To assure physical data center security, the manager must
      1. Lock data center
      2. Manage access list
      3. Track data center access with closed circuit TV cameras to monitor both internal and external building activities
      4. Protect access to data center with 24 x 7 onsite security
      5. Protect backup data
      6. Test recovery procedure

    2. For network security, the data center must have special facilities for
      1. Secure networking - firewall protection, encrypted data transfer only
      2. Network access monitoring and report auditing

    3. For data security, the manager must have
      1. Individual authentication - individual logins and passwords
      2. Role Based Access Control (see below)
      3. Audit trails - all access to all data fields tracked and recorded
      4. Data discipline - Limited ability to download data

    Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

    RBAC improves convenience and flexibility of systems management. Greater convenience helps reducing the errors of commission and omission in granting access privileges to users. Greater flexibility helps implement the policy of least privilege, where the users are granted only as much privileges as required for completing their job.

    RBAC promotes economies of scale, because the frequency of changes of role definition for a single user is higher than the frequency of changes of role definitions across entire organization. Thus, to make a massive change of privileges for a large number of users with same set of privileges, the administrator only makes changes to the role definition.

    Hierarchical RBAC further promotes economies of scale and reduces the likelihood of errors. It allows redefining roles by inheriting privileges assigned to roles in the higher hierarchical level.

    RBAC is based on establishing a set of user profiles or roles according to responsibilities. Each role has a predefined set of privileges. The user acquires privileges by receiving membership in the role or assignment of a profile by the administrator.

    Every time when the definition of the role changes along with the set of privileges that is required to complete the job associated with the role, the administrator needs only to redefine the privileges of the role. The privileges of all of the users that have this role get redefined automatically.

    Similarly, if the role of a single user is changed, the only operation that needs to be performed is the reassignment of the user profile, which will redefine user's access privileges automatically according to the new profile.

    Summary

    HIPAA compliance requires special practice management attention. A practice with multiple separate systems for scheduling, electronic medical records, and billing, requires multiple separate HIPAA management efforts. An integrated system reduces the complexity of HIPAA implementation. By outsourcing technology to a HIPAA-compliant vendor of vericle-like technology solution on an ASP or SaaS basis, HIPAA management overhead ca

    HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
    <a href="http://www.hubyou.info/article/131287/hubyou-Electronic-Medical-Billing-Software-HIPAA-Compliance-and-Role-Based-Access-Control.html">Electronic Medical Billing Software, HIPAA Compliance, and Role Based Access Control</a>

    BB link (for phorums):
    [url=http://www.hubyou.info/article/131287/hubyou-Electronic-Medical-Billing-Software-HIPAA-Compliance-and-Role-Based-Access-Control.html]Electronic Medical Billing Software, HIPAA Compliance, and Role Based Access Control[/url]

    Related Articles:

    Open a Dollar Store - Be Sure to Establish A Hierarchy of Needs!

    Podcasting vs Radio

    Mend Your Impaired Credit - Bad Credit Unsecured Personal Loans

    Bookmark it: del.icio.us digg.com reddit.com netvouz.com google.com yahoo.com technorati.com furl.net bloglines.com socialdust.com ma.gnolia.com newsvine.com slashdot.org simpy.com shadows.com blinklist.com