Hospitals falling short on next week's HIPAA security deadline
The deadline for healthcare organizations to meet the security requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is April 20, yet based on results of two recent surveys of healthcare organizations, many are struggling to meet the requirements.
According to a survey released this week by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) only 17 percent of all 1,140 responders indicated they were completely compliant; 43 percent described their status as 85 to 95 percent compliant; with the breakdown from there being 26 percent at 50 percent compliant, and 12 percent at less than 50 percent compliant.
The main challenge to implementation, according to the AHIMA survey, is education and training.
A similar study was conducted earlier this year by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). In the survey of 400 healthcare organizations, 18 percent of healthcare providers and 30 percent of insurers classified themselves as compliant, HIMSS said.
In the HIMSS study, the key obstacle to compliance was achieving integration of the new systems, policies, and processes across the organization. Additional concerns were interpretation of the regulations, as well as budget and time constraints, HIMSS said.
According to a survey released this week by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) only 17 percent of all 1,140 responders indicated they were completely compliant; 43 percent described their status as 85 to 95 percent compliant; with the breakdown from there being 26 percent at 50 percent compliant, and 12 percent at less than 50 percent compliant.
The main challenge to implementation, according to the AHIMA survey, is education and training.
A similar study was conducted earlier this year by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). In the survey of 400 healthcare organizations, 18 percent of healthcare providers and 30 percent of insurers classified themselves as compliant, HIMSS said.
In the HIMSS study, the key obstacle to compliance was achieving integration of the new systems, policies, and processes across the organization. Additional concerns were interpretation of the regulations, as well as budget and time constraints, HIMSS said.