HIPAA Privacy Law Deadline Looms... Health Organizations Scramble

The Deadline for HIPAA Privacy rules is fast approaching. The healthcare industry does not appear to be ready.

"Confusion, misunderstanding, frustration, anxiety, fear, and anger." That's the atmosphere that greets the pending deadline on April 14 for compliance with the government's health information privacy rules under HIPAA, according to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

Surveys indicate there is also ignorance and apathy. A recent poll of 125 medical offices, including over 500 physicians, revealed that less than 30 percent recognized the term "HIPAA" and less than 10 percent were actively preparing for its implementation! And in a broader nationwide study by Phoenix Health Systems, only five percent of health care providers said they had achieved HIPAA compliance.*

Wake Up Call

To wake up the health care industry to the ticking HIPAA clock, Sharon Turrell's health care publishing and consulting company - Practical Solutions Group, LLC - has created a free checklist that health care providers can use to determine their awareness of and readiness for HIPAA. It's available at this web address: http://hipaa-kit.com/checklist/%20">http://hipaa-kit.com/checklist/

Turrell says the results revealed by the questionnaire so far aren't encouraging. "Our checklist at http://hipaa-kit.com/">hipaa-kit.com has 57 questions. I did a spreadsheet of responses going back to October 2002 until now and came up with average score of 22.36 percent. That's a failing grade by anybody's standards and shows that most health care providers are not ready for the deadline."

Practical Solutions Group has created several implementation guides called HIPAA Kits to help health care organizations of all sizes meet the compliance deadline. Click here for more details: http://hipaa-kit.com/">http://hipaa-kit.com/

For interviews or more information, contact Sharon Turrell at (561) 704-6902 or by email info@hipaa-kit.com.

(*HIPAA is the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The privacy guidelines under HIPAA will govern the security of patient information and give patients new rights to access their own health records. Any hospital, clinic, doctor, dentist, insurance plan or other health care organization that maintains or transmits health information electronically must comply with the legislation by April 14, 2003.)