Lively Debate at HIPAA Summit at Harvard
By Neil Versel, contributing editor

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Are patient privacy rules effective? The answer is not a simple yes or no. “It’s working, but it’s got a ways to go,” suggests William Braithwaite, chief medical officer of San Diego-based security and identity management company Anakam. He says that current federal and state privacy rules generally do not address new technologies such as mobile Internet access and personal health records (PHR) platforms.

Deborah Peel, founder and chair of Patient Privacy Rights and the affiliated Coalition for Patient Privacy, begs to differ. She says the August 2002 amendments to the original HIPAA privacy rule effectively eliminated the patient’s right to consent to the use of protected health information by adding permission to share such data for “treatment, payment, and health care operations.”

Braithwaite, known as “Doctor HIPAA” because he helped draft the rules last decade when he was a senior advisor on health-IT policy in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Peel were part of a lively roundtable discussion and debate Tuesday morning at the Sixteenth National HIPAA Summit and related Privacy Symposium on the Harvard University campus. More...

Executive Interview
Karen Trudel of CMS Talks about HIPAA Audits and NPI Issues
By Cindy Atoji

In the wake of one of the largest fines levied by HHS for a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) violation, HIPAA official Karen Trudel says to expect further audits and enforcement proceedings as federal officials begin to extend compliance reviews. “Where appropriate, we will not hesitate to use all of the tools that we have at our disposal,” says Trudel, deputy director of the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) Office of HIPAA Standards.

The security breach at Providence Health and Services resulted in a $100,000 HHS (Health and Human Services) fine and a corrective plan to protect patient information, after the Seattle-based firm allegedly failed to properly secure electronic backup media and laptops containing patient health data. “From our perspective, enforcement, especially for security, is something that is multi-faceted,” says Trudel. “So we have the compliance review, our enforcement process and the penalties we can bring to bear if necessary—and all of these are important.”

On the NPI front, despite industry rumblings of a large increase in rejected claims after this spring’s NPI (National Provider Identifier) deadline, Trudel says, “we are rejecting almost no claims because of a lack of NPI. I’d say things are going well.” Trudel spoke with Digital HealthCare & Productivity about HIPAA developments at CMS, which include ePrescribing and personal health records, as well as her thoughts on how well NPI is working.

DHP: What is your role at CMS?
TRUDEL: I’m the executive director of the office of e-health standards and services. We have responsibility for HIPAA standards development, with the exception of privacy, which is the Office for Civil Rights, and the HIPAA enforcement process. I also oversee e-prescribing and a number of HIT initiatives, including personal health records. More...

Is this the Year of the CMIO Break-out?
By Neil Versel, contributing editor

It may seem hard to believe in a world where paper still predominates, that many health care organizations are well into the second or third phase of technology roll-out programs, and that is causing a profound transformation in some health-IT leadership positions. In the most recent Healthcare Information and Management More...

Deals, Deployments, and Short News
By Allison Proffitt, Digital HealthCare & Productivity staff

Arkansas BCBS signs up for TriZetto app; Picis releases EHR and staffing poll results; HL7 releases Version 3 Normative Edition 2008; MEDecision is acquired by Health Care Service Corporation. More...

LIFE SCIENCE JOBS

Isilon Systems ~ Senior Marketing Communications Manager
Isilon Systems is the worldwide leader in clustered storage systems and software for digital content and unstructured data. We seek an experienced marketing communications professional/writer expert in creating and delivering effective and persuasive business communications. The ideal candidate can think at the strategic and conceptual level and act, simultaneously, as a highly-effective and productive individual contributor. The position is based in Seattle, WA. For additional information click here

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD) - Associate Director of Informatics,
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Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD)- Senior Bioinformatics Scientist,
Contribute to the development of novel algorithms, data analysis methods and software tools for drug discovery as part of the Integrative Computational Sciences (ICS) department at LSCDD. Work closely with informatics and software engineering peers at ICS, and collaborate with the Discovery IT organization in Europe and USA. The successful candidate will offer hands-on insight and expertise in tailored therapeutic informatics and statistical analyses at the post-genomic era. For additional information, or to apply visit: LSCDD

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD) - Manager, Software Engineering (Integrative Computational Sciences)
Join the Integrative Computational Sciences (ICS) department at Lilly Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery (LSCDD),as Manager Software Engineering. Lead the development of integrated applications to process and visualize data from cutting edge technologies used by scientists at Lilly Research Labs (LRL) and the Drug Discovery Research (DDR) teams. Masters in Computer Science/Engineering or related discipline, 10+ years post graduation experience , 2 years management experience needed. For a complete job description and requirements or to apply visit: LSCDD

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery(LSCDD) -Senior Software Engineer,
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Linguamatics, Applications Specialist, Life Sciences Text Mining Software - Northeast U.S.*
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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - Linux Systems Administrator
MSKCC Bioinformatics Core in Manhattan seeks Linux Systems Administrator. Install, configure, update, monitor and troubleshoot HPC cluster, email and web servers. Bachelor's degree and 3 years experience with HPC, network security, Postfix, Apache, Tomcat, Grid Engine, Solaris. Email bic-jobs@cbio.mskcc.org orwww.mskcc.org #015429. EOE/AA

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FEATURED EVENTS

ELNs: Advanced Laboratory Solutions-September 15 - 17 2008 • Crowne Plaza, Brussels, Belgium

Discovery Knowledge & Informatics - September 15 - 17, 2008 • Crowne Plaza, Brussels, Belgium

Multiplexed Genomics Tools: Targeting the Missing Links
Between Health and Disease - September 21-23, 2008 • Providence, RI

Next-Generation Sequencing Data Analysis -September 22-23, 2008 • Providence, RI

DIA 2nd Annual Clinical Forum: Data Driven Drug Development Decisions - October 20-23, 2008 | Ljubljana, Slovenia

Barnett Educational Services, 2008 Schedule

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