Introducing Nuts & Bolts

On behalf of AdvancedMD Software, I would like to welcome you to our first edition of Nuts & Bolts, our monthly online newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is three-fold:

• Provide current information to providers about medical billing and practice management strategies.
• Supply the latest in electronic medical record trends.
• Promote quick help and tips to our current customers for using AdvancedMD Software in real-world situations.

We would love to hear suggestions for subjects to report on. If you find an article to be especially useful, feel free to forward it on to a colleague.

We understand our customers are busy professionals, so our goal is to provide concise, relevant information that will help you be more efficient and effective in your job.

Again, welcome to Nuts & Bolts. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy producing it.

Jim Pack
President & CEO
AdvancedMD Software

New Survey Reveals 20% of Healthcare Providers Will Never
be Fully HIPAA Compliant

Since 1996, healthcare companies have been phased into complying with a federal law designed to protect the privacy of people seeking medical help. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guarantees Americans keep their health insurance if they change jobs. A secondary benefit provides ways to protect patient privacy and use technology to provide access to records throughout the healthcare system.

A twice yearly survey conducted by Phoenix Health Systems and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) measures provider compliance with HIPAA. The latest survey showed about 20% of providers are "unable or unwilling to implement Federal privacy requirements." Two discouraging facts of this survey are a) privacy compliance was supposed to have been implemented in April of 2003 and b) a new deadline for smaller companies, those with less than $5 million in revenue, went into effect April 21, 2006. The number of non-compliant providers didn't effectively change from last year to this year.

The biggest reason healthcare companies aren't complying is the law is vague and technology options have changed drastically since 1996. William "Buddy" Gillespie, CIO at WellSpan Health explains their process:

"They were very general in a lot of cases. Regulatory statements said something about the requirements but didn't come out and say what technology was involved. We went through the regulation sections for more than a year to interpret those regulations into technology solutions that seemed to work and meet the regulations too."

More surprisingly though is the brazen non-compliance more healthcare companies feel is an appropriate response to Federal law. Ross Armstrong, senior analyst at Info-Tech Research Group says, "A lot of health care organizations have just decided not to implement HIPAA because they see no public relations downside with noncompliance, and there are no expected
legal problems."

That's because HIPAA penalties are financially small and the enforcement system is complaint driven. Penalties are $100 per incident that is not resolved quickly or a maximum of $25,000 per year for violating specific rules. In ten years of existence there has only been one conviction for a HIPAA violation.

HIPAA enforcement is also difficult since it is a complaint driven system, unlike the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or Sarbanes-Oxley which have yearly audits and compliance standards. How would a patient ever know if their information had been violated to file a complaint? In fact "ignorance and confusion" are a large part of the 6,000 complaints filed with the Office of Civil Rights.

The remaining question is, can HIPAA be considered successful without full compliance from healthcare providers? That answer has yet to be determined.

Resources
Stitching Up Health Records: Privacy Compliance Lags http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1949803,00.asp

The HIPAA Prescription for Healthcare - Why Isn't It Working? http://www.healthmgttech.com/archives/0904/0904the_hipaa.htm

Quotable Quote
If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.

Alfred Nobel

Shortcut keys & tricks
In the AdvancedMD Date Picker, type using the "mmddyyyy" format and the field will automatically change to "mm/dd/yyyy." This saves users from needing to type the "/" characters so they can keep their hands on the 10-key pad.

Coding News
State of Maryland adopts APR-DRG classification system from 3M. It aims to compensate hospitals and physicians for treat-ment based on Severity of Illness and Risk of Mortality, and break those into 4 degrees.

more...

In the Numbers

Source: HIMSS

Legal Watch
Massachusetts bill requires health insurance for everyone. Last month, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed into law a bill that would bring health care coverage to everyone in his state.

more...

Events Watch
TEPR, or Towards Electronic Patient Records, is the largest EMR event in the world with 2,000 to 3,000 participants. Visit AdvancedMD at booth number 427 beginning May 20, in Maryland.

The 2006 Fall Annual Conference for HBMA (Healthcare Billing & Management Association) will be Sept. 10-12 in Las Vegas, NV. Bring a friend and come say hello to AdvancedMD.