At a recent conference held by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), important questions were raised again about consumer privacy and security around electronic health records.  Given the recent Obama Administration’s position to make electronic records a cornerstone of their national health care reform, this topic will become a major focus of concern for all companies who fall under the requirements outlined in the the current standards responsible for assuring the privacy and security of electronic health records. 

The Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) was the first organization to offer HIPAA Privacy Accreditation.  At this conference URAC President and CEO, Alan P. Spielman focused his comments around the concerns of consumers’ privacy and how that privacy would be controlled for both Covered Entities (CE) and Business Associates (BA) under the current status of standards applied to this area of concern.

With so many potential companies being affected by the expanded integration of electronic health records, companies must keep current on all the recent developments that have taken place in the last few months as well as the many pending developments that are sure to happen in the very near future.

Read this article and be sure to utilize the links above to keep your organization in touch with these important risk management issues..