Government department heads and industry leaders will be attending the 23rd National HIPAA Summit to give updates on the work that has been completed in the last year and to provide information on new legislation and regulations. The summit also offers the chance for compliance officers and other healthcare professionals to receive training on a wide variety of healthcare IT and HIPAA-compliance issues.
The threat of cyberattacks to healthcare providers has increased to an all time high and healthcare costs are spiraling out of control. The industry may be in critical condition, yet healthcare providers, health plans and other covered entities must locate the funding to improve data security and protect the privacy of patients and health subscribers.
Since the introduction of HIPAA this has posed a massive challenge, but with the introduction of HITECH, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the move to IC10 coding and the passing of the HIPAA Omnibus Rule the challenge has grown even larger. HIPAA-covered entities now face a huge financial and administrative burden to adhere with these regulations, yet they must also continue to provide, and improve, the quality of healthcare services that they provide. In spite of the huge advantages that come from the move to digital data over physical records, there is still financial, clinical, and political opposition to change.
The move to EHRs presented many issues, although today this move is now almost finished. 94% of non-federal hospitals and 78% of office-based physicians have now adopted electronic health records, but those that have now implemented the change have to tackle with a plethora of big data issues that threaten the privacy of patients and plan members.
With such complex challenges, many HIPAA-covered bodies are struggling to put in place the required policies and procedures to gain full compliance. One of the main aims of the conference is therefore to ease the stress on healthcare professionals and to provide guidance and assistance to help them strengthen data security and ensure compliance.
This is the 31st HIPAA Summit event since the passing of the bill in 1996, and the National HIPAA Summit is an excellent chance for Privacy and Security Officers, healthcare IT specialists, medical professionals, financial officers and health insurance executives to gain a greater insight into HIPAA and its implications for the healthcare industry.
Presentations will provide practical advice on HIPAA-compliance, data security, data breach responses and the legal and privacy issues that surround the move from paper to electronic health records, while HIPAA Academy Professional Certification Training is being made available to delegates.
Two best practice roundtables are being conducted for Privacy and Security Officers, with question and answer sessions to help highlight, and deal with, the challenges currently being faced by the industry.
