Fear Of HIPPA Sells

“The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can show up at your door and ask to perform an audit on short notice, and your organization will need to be ready, or face fines of up to $50,000 per day for each regulatory provision violated.”

Fear of HIPAA sells  – “The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can show up at your door and ask to perform an audit on short notice, and your organization will need to be ready, or face fines of up to $50,000 per day for each regulatory provision violated.” – Gene Kraemer, Customer Relationship Director at The Coding Institute. http://www.audioeducator.com/hipaa-audits-and-enforcement-042412.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=E99NAGAJ&utm_campaign=E99NAGAJ The most successful of opportunistic HIPAA consultants are the scariest. As a dentist for almost 30 years, I’ve noticed that along with even rumors of mandate enforcement, ambitious compliance consultants’ fear-inspiring ads start interrupting happier thoughts. It happened with OSHA’s push into dentistry 20 years ago and we clearly see the aggressive sales pitches with HIPAA as well. The scariest part of Gene Kraemer’s description of HIPAA’s tedious requirements and bankruptcy-level liabilities is that he is simply telling the truth. So if you are a HIPAA covered dentist, be scared. On the other hand, if you don’t store or send your patients’ digital PHI – choosing instead to use the US Mail – you are increasingly fortunate in the dentistry market. For one thing, our patients are fed up with identity thefts, and paper dental records are the gold standard in security. In addition, nothing is holding down your competitors’ costs for HIPAA compliance and it is increasing much faster than the cost of postage. De-identify now or lose computerization, Doc. If your patients’ PHI is not present it simply cannot be hacked by an identity thief. Guaranteed more secure than Cloud. Arguably more secure than even paper dental records. Or… You can hire The Coding Institute. You can bet Gene Kraemer isn’t someone who would hold down the cost of compliance. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS ————– From: Gene_Kraemer@mail.vresp.com Subject: HIPAA Audits & Enforcement: New Penalties & Push for Compliance – Final Notice! Good Morning, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently implementing audits to meet requirements in the HITECH Act in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for performing periodic audits of compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, and up to 150 random HIPAA compliance audits will be performed by the end of 2012. While in the past, audits had been performed only at entities that had had a complaint filed against them, the new rule calls for audits whether or not there is a complaint. This means, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can show up at your door and ask to perform an audit on short notice, and your organization will need to be ready, or face fines of up to $50,000 per day for each regulatory provision violated. Join us for this live audio conference on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 1 pm ET | 12 pm CT | 11 am MT | 10 am PT. This conference is being presented by Jim Sheldon-Dean, the founder and director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm founded in 1982, providing information privacy and security regulatory compliance services to health care firms and businesses throughout the Northeast and nationally. He serves on the HIMSS Information Systems Security Workgroup, the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange Privacy and Security Workgroup, and co-chairs the WEDI HIPAA Updates sub-workgroup. Sheldon-Dean is a participating member of the advisory board of Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL), and has participated in VITL’s Vermont Health Information Technology Plan working group, VITL’s Physician EMR adoption project, and the Security Workgroup of the New Hampshire/Vermont Strategic HIPAA Implementation Plan (NHVSHIP). Highlights of the session : • Fines and penalties for violations of the HIPAA regulations have been significantly increased and now include mandatory fines for willful negligence that begin at $10,000 minimum. • HIPAA Audits have been few and far between in the past, but that’s now changing – the HHS will be auditing HIPAA covered entities and business associates even if there have been no complaints or problems reported. • What HHS OCR is likely to ask you if you are selected for an audit, and what you’ll have to have prepared already when they do. • The rules are that you need to comply with will be explained. Learn about the policies you can adopt that can help you come into compliance and be prepared for an audit. • How the HIPAA rules have changed and how you may need to change. How you work to keep up with them. • How having a good compliance process can help you stay compliant and respond to audits more easily. • The documentation needed to survive an audit and avoid fines will be described. • A discussion on what you’ll need to think about to deal with current and future threats to the security of patient information. If interested, please click the following link to register and get your early bird discount : – http://www.audioeducator.com/hipaa-audits-and-enforcement-042412.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=E99NAGAJ&utm_campaign=E99NAGAJ Please apply discount code “GENE20” at checkout to get your $20 discount on early registration. Looking forward to having you onboard here. Thanks, Gene Kraemer Customer Relationship Director The Coding Institute LLC 2222 Sedwick Drive, Durham, NC 27713