Striving for HIPAA Compiance?

krisguy asks: "As a Oxygen Transfill Technician for a DME (Durable Medical Equipment - wheelchairs, oxygen, and such) company, my only regulatory problems have been with the FDA. Recently, due to good management of FDA regulations, I was appointed HIPAA security officer for my company. I looked at the 'helpful' compliance manual from our buying group, and realized that I have to try to get over twenty people who have 'limited knowledge of computers' (read: don't want to learn) to begin to use stuff like PGP, ANSI X12 codes, and having to write, train, and enforce procedure rules. To top this all off, I only have until April 14, 2003 to get most of this fully functional or forced to have the company shut down. I am wondering if any Slashdot readers in medical fields are feeling the pain of HIPAA like I am right now, and what ways can I get everyone to comply besides "You don't do it, you don't work here."?" Ask Slashdot last touched on HIPAA issues when this article which concerned itself with Windows 2000 and HIPAA issues. For those who have already hopped thru the rings that represent HIPAA compliance on an general basis, what did you have to insure was done?

Comments

I hate it when this happens.

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Gods, another one. The frequently asked questions is a f****** M$ Word Doc! I was shocked and angered when I found the local Society of Profesional Engineers had forms like this, but the AMA?

Wait, it gets worse. Opened it with KWord. The only formats are bolds, centering, ?unicode?, and a few hyperlinks, that differ from normal html by only a few control characters which must only work for word. Why, oh why, would anyone use Word to publish something like that? Nothing different or useful was added by word. All word did was make it a little harder for me to read the thing presented.

I appreciate the effort, but please don't use Word. If you must use Word, save it as text or html. If word won't do that don't use word for things you want to share or cut and paste into another text editor that will do this. Remember that you yourself may not be able to read what you write in Word after the next "upgrade" and that most of your effort making the format just so will be wasted.