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In This Issue:
HIPAA: Round Two
The Security Rule associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) becomes effective on April 21, 2005. The HIPAA Security Rule applies to protected health information (PHI) maintained or transmitted in electronic forms only.
As it was with the HIPAA Privacy Rule, BWH is federally mandated to provide HIPAA Security Rule awareness training to all staff. All employees who have not received training from their supervisors or managers should complete the on-line training found on www.bwhpikenotes.org. Click on “compliance corner” on the left of the homepage to find HIPAA on the left navigation. Select “HIPAA” to get to HIPAA Security Training Slides. Upon completion of the training, employees should notify their managers, who must document completion in PeopleSoft Manager Self Service. The code for BWH HIPAA Security is BWHMN7.
The HIPAA page of the intranet site also contains helpful background information on what is considered electronic protected health information (ePHI). Further questions can be directed to the BWH HIPAA Security Office via Outlook.
Staff are reminded that identifiable health information may be shared among caregivers for the purposes of: treatment, payment or health care operations. Health care operations include QA/QI, utilization review, disease management, credentialing, and auditing. Any other use of PHI or disclosure of information (i.e., research, marketing, etc.) requires the written authorization and consent of the patient.
April 10-16 is National Health Information Privacy and Security Week. Stop by the table in front of the BWH Cafeteria on Tuesday, April 12, or Thursday, April 14, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to pick up HIPAA Security training materials, along with a free retractable badge holder.