| HIPAAdvisory > HIPAAnews > Archives |  |
|
|
December 2001 News Archives:December 29,
2001 Bush Approves Transactions Deadline Delay Read the legislative history of HR 3323, provided by Tom Gilligan, Executive Director of the Association For Electronic Health Care Transactions (AFEHCT). Review the full text of HR 3323 (FINAL VERSION - PDF). December 17, 2001
New HIMSS Report: Vendors Making Major Strides Towards Compliance
A HIMSS-sponsored survey of healthcare information technology
vendors indicates that a majority of respondents' products will
support the HIPAA transaction standards by October 2002, and many
will support HIPAA Joyce Sensmeier, Director of Professional Services of HIMSS testified
on December 14, 2001 before the National Committee on Vital and
Health Statistics (NCVHS) on the results of the vendor survey, conducted
by HIMSS with 28 leading healthcare software companies during the
first week of December. December 17, 2001 VIRUS ALERT: New "Gokar" Worm Spreading by E-mail, Chat, & Web A new worm called "Gokar" began to spread across the Internet Thursday via e-mail, the chat program mIRC, and the Web, according to a trio of anti-virus firms. The worm is not destructive and has not yet infected many systems, but as with any mass-mailer worm, could become a nuisance as unsuspecting users spread it. Like other mass-mailing worms, Gokar spreads through Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail clients when a user clicks on an attachment sent with the infected message, according to anti-virus firms Symantec, F-Secure, and Trend Micro. Infected e-mail arrives in user inboxes with dozens of combinations of different subject lines, body messages, and filenames, although each attachment will end with the .pif, .scr, .exe., .com, or .bat extensions, the companies said. Full Story. December 13, 2001 Senate Passes House Version of Transactions Delay Bill Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed a version of the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act bill that is identical to HR 3323, passed by the House last week. The bill enables covered entities to delay their compliance with the HIPAA transactions and code sets regulations by one full year until October 16, 2003, if they submit a compliance plan to the Secretary of DHHS by October 16, 2002. The plan must include a budget, schedule, work plan, and implementation strategy for achieving compliance. The bill still must be signed by the President before it becomes effective. Tom Gilligan, Executive Director of the Association For Electronic Health Care Transactions (AFEHCT) said that, "the House and Senate staffs are working on 'legislative history/report language' that may accompany the bill. But that will not impede HR 3323 from being sent to the President for signature. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation." The bill specifically states that nothing in the bill changes the compliance date of the privacy regulation, which is April 14, 2003. Read more about HR 3323. December 11, 2001 New Provider Survey: HIPAA Infrastructure is Growing The health care industry appears to have taken the organizational steps necessary to comply with the HIPAA privacy rule, according to a survey conducted by the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA). HCCA receivied 237 completed HIPAA privacy readiness surveys, which it conducted of its members in the fall of 2001. According to the survey, staff education and initial organizational steps are under way, and the development of HIPAA privacy policies and procedures is moving forward. Read more. December 7, 2001 New Report Compares Self-Regulatory Standards of Health Web Sites A new report, prepared by the Health Privacy Project at Georgetown University for the California HealthCare Foundation, looks at self-regulatory standards and programs available to health Web sites. The self-regulatory efforts differ in focus and comprehensiveness; some offer general principles, while others provide detailed rules and examples to assist sites in implementing the standards. This report compares the self-regulatory efforts developed by several trade and professional organizations against criteria based on the Federal Trade Commission's Code of Fair Information Practice Principles. Other key findings of the report are that because there is a range of self-regulatory standards and programs available to health Web sites, consumers may find it hard to distinguish the features of each program and may be confused by the various symbols and seals that appear on different sites. Also, a key weakness of these self-regulatory efforts is that compliance with online standards is voluntary and there are few, if any, enforcement mechanisms in place for noncompliance. Read the report (PDF). December 7, 2001 Survey Predicts Health Care will be Paperless by 2010 A recent survey of CEOs from some of the largest computer and technology companies shows confidence remains that over the next five to ten years, the Internet will be widespread; e-commerce will flourish; and significant improvements in online security will lead to greater consumer confidence in the online world. The annual survey of Business Software Alliance member company CEOs, called "Confident of Technology's Future: Executives Look Ahead," reports that by 2010, consumers will use convenience and cost, rather than security, as the determining factors when choosing between Internet and traditional transactions. The CEOs had varying opinions as to whether the health care and government sectors would transform themselves into paperless, online environments by 2005. However, the CEOs agreed that by 2010, both sectors would be essentially paperless. The results of two surveys - one from August and another from shortly after the attacks on New York and Washington - show that the confidence of the CEOs in technology's future has not been lessened by the economic downturn or the tragic events of 2001. Read the report (PDF). December 6, 2001 Per House HIPAA Leaders: Transactions Delay Is "1-Time Deal" Despite their support for the House Bill 3323 Transactions compliance delay, HIPAA administrative simplification co-authors Dave Hobson (R-OH) and Tom Sawyer (D-OH), vocally oppose any future efforts to delay the HIPAA provisions. Following House passage of the measure on December 5, Sawyer stated that, "This is a one-time deal. We hope members will not come back again asking for any further delays. The answer next time will be, I am certain, a clear and inarguable no." Hobson noted that the legislation "does not simply delay the administrative simplification provisions, but rather, provides a clear plan and ONE-TIME extension to reach compliance in the marketplace." HR 3323 does not strictly call for a 1-year delay; rather, it establishes conditions for covered entities to receive a delay. Read more. December 5, 2001
UPDATE: Transactions Delay Bills Pass Senate
& House Last night, the House passed its bill, HR 3323,
to delay implementation of the transactions and code sets standards
for one full year until October 16, 2003. One week ago today, the
Senate passed without amendment and by unanimous consent its TCS
delay bill, S 1684. Both bills explicitly state that nothing in
the bills affects the implementation of the HIPAA privacy regulation. December 5, 2001
Feds Finalize Adoption of New Encryption Standard The U.S. government
has formally adopted the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to replace
the decades-old Data Encryption Standard (DES). The government first
selected the algorithm developed by two Belgian Cryptographers last
year, but the period of public comment and proposed revisions has
now ended and the standard is now final. The new standard runs on
a variety of hardware and software platforms and supports 128, 192,
and 256 bit key lengths. Full
Story. December 5, 2001 VIRUS ALERT: New "Goner" Virus Is Spreading Rapidly News sources today are reporting the rapid spread of the new "Goner" Worm. The worm comes to most users via an e-mail attachment that appears to be a screen saver. Here is the text:
When a user opens the attachment, the virus is launched. Once activated,
the Read
the New York Times for more information about this virus. December 5, 2001 AHA Urges Rulemaking Notice to Fix HIPAA Problem Areas AHA News Now reports that the American Hospital Association (AHA) sent a letter yesterday urging President Bush and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to fix those parts of HIPAA that have the greatest potential to undermine patient care and essential hospital operations. In the letter to Bush and Thompson, the AHA said that the nearly eight-month delay in issuing new rules to fix HIPAA's serious and unintended consequences has contributed substantially to hospital frustration and anxiety over the pending compliance deadline of April 2003. The letter additionally asks HHS to develop a plan for resolving emerging unintended consequences, such as the impact a patient's revocation of consent may have on patient care, accreditation and quality measurement. The AHA said the HIPAA security rules are "inextricably linked" to the medical privacy rules, and as such it is unreasonable to expect hospitals to move on privacy obligation in the absence of final rules on security. Read the letter.
|
|
Schedule for Reg Publication/
|
