EMR contractors face stiff compliance expectations - bizjournals:

http://www.jasonkenney.org/?p=697
Under HIPAA, contractors who find a security breach that coulrd exposea patient’s health history to anyon outside of the medical profession are requiredf to notify all individuals who are The changes, part of the Americamn Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), are intended to appeasw constituents concerned that sensitive medical informatiobn could fall into the wrong In cases where a security breacuh makes a large number of medical records available, the consultants are required to alert the The rules are similarf to federal regulations on financial records intendes to protect consumers against identity Gina Kastel, a partner for the law firm in said the new rules apply to contractords working on EMR including information technology lawyers, accountants and others.
“I would characterize it as a headache — particularly for thoswe not used to dealing with health care Kastel said. “It means [contractors] need to be more vigilantg abouttracking [security breaches]. That means more hours and manpowerf to implement the Kastel said she believed the bureaucrachy creates a disincentive for smalledr firms to tap intoapproximately $36 billion bein g made available under the Health Informationj Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, part of the federak stimulus plan. “It might not be worth the hassle for a lot ofsmalol firms,” Kastel said. “You have to comply and continueto comply.
” Kastel said she’sx also concerned about the aggressivs timeframe in which contractors are expected to conform with the new She noted that medicak professionals and financial services had many years to get up to speer with HIPAA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. But Gerry a partner with Faegre Benson’s Denver office, said the new rulesz would be viewed as afair trade-oftf for many businesses that expect to benefit from the stimulu s money. “This is clearly a higher compliance burden, no doubtt about that,” he said.
“Many won’t be happy with it, but in the end, the businesw opportunity will drive more transactions than the compliance Richard Taylor, a business-solution architectt for , said the Greenwood Village-based IT consultingv firm expects to “double or maybe even triple” the numberf of consultants working on EMR initiativexs in the next couple of yearse — largely due to the stimulus Of Ciber’s 7,245 employees Taylor estimates up to 200 have workexd or are working on EMR