If you’re new to the healthcare industry and HIPAA compliance, or just need a reminder, all the acronyms can be a bit intimidating… here’s a cheat sheet of a few important acronyms and what they refer to.

ACRONYMS:

AHIMA – American Health Information Management Association
AHRQ – Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
CFR – Code of Federal Regulations (A compilation of the general and permanent rules of the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government as published in the Federal Register. The code is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation.)
CHP – Certification in Healthcare Privacy
CHPS – Certification in Healthcare Privacy and Security
CMP –Civil Money Penalty
EHR – Electronic Health Record
EMR – Electronic Medical Records Systems
HHS – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
OCR – Office for Civil Rights (within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
PSO – patient safety organizations
PSQIA — Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Rule (PSQIA establishes a voluntary reporting system to enhance the data available to assess and resolve patient safety and health care quality issues. To encourage the reporting and analysis of medical errors, PSQIA provides Federal privilege and confidentiality protections for patient safety information called patient safety work product. Patient safety work product includes information collected and created during the reporting and analysis of patient safety events.)
PSWP – patient safety work product

Don’t see what you’re looking for in the short list above? Check out this list for more healthcare acronyms.

We’ve scoured the top job sites including Monster.com, Dice.com as well as other specialized healthcare and compliance sites to bring you ten interesting HIPAA jobs that you’ll want to check out.  How would you like to work at a hospital for children as the Director of Medical Records in Brighton, MA?  Or perhaps working for Kaiser in Denver might be of more interest.  Either way, read on to see some of the most interesting HIPAA jobs nationwide.  We’re going to try to make this a regular feature of HIPAAnews.net so be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss out!

Job list compiled on October 5, 2009.

Job Title: SEBMF- Director of Health Information & HIPAA Privacy Officer SEBMF- Director of Health Information & HIPAA Privacy Officer
Company: Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation
Location: California-San Francisco East Bay and Solano-Lafayette
Job description: Provides direction for the Health Information/Medical Records Departments of Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, supports the strategic objectives of the organization, and ensures compliance to regulatory requirements/statutes.
Responsible for daily functions surrounding the medical record; creates policies and establishes workflow transition processes during and post EHR migration to include transcription services. Creates policies and procedures related to electronic data transmission, storage, and HIPAA regulations, manages electronic health record, and acts as system administrator for HIMS related IT systems. Establishes organizational structure and ensures implementation of “best practices” for Health Information Management. Responsible for staffing, budgeting, and facility development for Care Center Health Information/Medical Record Departments.
The Director of Health Information & HIPAA Privacy Officer reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer. Reporting to the incumbent are Care Center Medical Records Department leads and supporting staff with a dotted line to the Care Center Manager…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: Corporate HIPAA Compliance Manager
Company: Health Management Associates, Inc
Location: Naples, FL
Job description: The Corporate HIPAA Compliance Manager assists in the development, implementation and training of the organization’s HIPAA policies and procedures to comply with federal and state laws regarding privacy and security practices. This organized leader will provide internal and external communications expertise for ongoing HIPAA efforts and serve as a resource for questions regarding application and interpretation of the HIPAA regulations. Builds awareness throughout the organization to educate and motivate employees and management — making HIPAA understandable to specific target audiences. Maintains critical communication pathways across entire corporation with all designated HIPAA Officers. Additionally, the Manager oversees progress reports to corporate Senior Management and develops training events to enhance compliance…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: HIPAA Systems Development Support
Company: Computer Sciences Corporation
Location: Menands, NY
Job description: This candidate will work on HIPAA implementation, issues remediation, and will assist in the development of the Privacy and Security Policies and Procedures. Much of this work means being assigned to and following various listserv such as NCPDP, X12N, DISA, NMEH, Wedi-SNIP and others. Some travel will be required to work with the industry groups and standards development organizations in the development of HIPAA Implementation Guides and technical reports. This candidate will participate on weekly and biweekly teleconference meetings. This involvement is key to ensure CSC’s and DOH’s interests are addressed and taken into consideration whenever changes are requested for the various Implementation Guides or technical reports. This candidate will work with Trading Partners helping to bring them to HIPAA compliance and keeping them informed of how HIPAA requirements affect the Medicaid transactions and will travel to various sites to do HIPAA transaction training and teach the Trading Partners the tools necessary to assist them in submitting successful production HIPAA transactions…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: Director of Medical Records
Company: Franciscan Hospital for Children
Location: Brighton, MA
Job description: Develops and implements policies and procedures for documenting, storing, and retrieving information, and for processing medical-legal documents, insurance data, and correspondence requests, in conformance with federal, state, and local statutes. Supervises staff, in preparing and analyzing medical documents. Participates in development and design of computer software for computerized health information system. Responsible for Inpatient, Psych, Outpatient, Dental, Home Health, and other program medical records. Duties include a significant amount of time assembling, analyzing and coding (diagnostic, procedural & E&M) medical records especially with Inpatient, Inpatient Psychiatry, Outpatient, Dental and other non-hospital program records. Coordinates medical care evaluation with medical staff and develops criteria and methods for such evaluation. Develops in-service educational materials and conducts instructional programs for health care personnel. Prepares department budget…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: HIPAA Compliance Administrator
Company: Woodbury Technologies, Inc
Location: San Antonio, TX
Job description: HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance Monitoring. The specialist shall assist Privacy and Security Officers with the planning and execution of periodic risk assessments and ongoing privacy and security compliance monitoring activities. …The specialist shall coordinate with government leadership and assigned Privacy and Security Officers to assist with, and support organizational activities related to the development, implementation, maintenance of, and compliance with the Privacy Act and HIPAA privacy and security requirements as mandated by Federal, DoD, and AFMS policies and procedures.
The specialist shall organize ongoing HIPAA compliance activities, noting requirements, milestones, timelines, and resources. This shall incorporate and address all overlapping organizational privacy and security issues, which affect the protection of health information…. The specialist shall provide an Education, Training, and HIPAA Awareness Plan which outlines specific efforts taken to meet educational and training needs to promote privacy and security awareness in order to protect health information and Privacy Act data…. Facilitate a map/gap analysis and evaluation of policies, processes, procedures and instructions as they relate to privacy, security and the protection of individually identifiable health information/protected health information…. Review/assess all locally maintained business associate agreements to ensure compliance with HIPAA and Privacy Act…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: Data Specialist/SAS Programmer
Company: Kaiser Permanente – Colorado Region
Location: Denver, CO
Job description: The Data Specialist / SAS Programmer 2 works in conjunction with the Statistical Analysts and Programmers to manage all aspects of data manipulation, ensuring data quality and maintaining data integrity for one or more complex studies through the use of high level SAS programming. As part of the research team, the Data Specialist / SAS Programmer 2 is responsible for providing expertise on efficient and appropriate use of data. … Coordinates with the HIPAA compliance officer to make sure all data use, manipulations, storage, and transfers meet the required HIPAA guidelines….Starting salary range is $49,000 – $74,000 DOE plus excellent benefits package…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: Meditech HIM (MRI) Client-Server Implementation Expert – Lead Analyst experience
Company: CyberCoders
Location: Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA
Job description: Due to continued growth, we need to add dedicated Implementation Specialist to our Meditech team. In this role, you would act as Lead Analyst on Meditech HIM (MRI) system installs within a client/server environment.

This is a travel job and you can be based from any city in the Western USA as long as you are willing to travel Monday thru Thursday. Travel will be within the south western USA… This is a full time gig working as a traveling consultant… We work hard but keep it manageable! We love our consultants and reward them generously with bonuses….Salary range is $85,000 – $110,000…Skills required: Meditech Client/Server, Team Leader, Nursing Informatics, Electronic Healthcare Systems, Electronic Medical Records, HIPAA, Meditech C/S 5.6 Platform…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: Lead ETL/ Claims (HIPAA) Tester
Company: Mastech Inc
Location: Pleasanton, CA
Job description: We are currently seeking Lead ETL/ Claims (HIPAA) Testers for our client in the Healthcare domain. …Create Test Scripts in co-ordination with Business and verify data loaded from source to staging to Data warehouse. 
Work in conjunction with the Business Analysts, Solution Consultants, and ETL Team to create, modify, or update Test Scripts.
 Perform analysis, design, and create Test Cases, documentation, and execution of Test Scripts. 
Follow testing guidelines, standards, and procedures.
 Participate in requirements, design, and code reviews, and get the big picture.
 Lead the project independently and communicate with Business Analysts, ETL Developers, and Business Team…Compensation: $50 – $55/ Hourly on W2…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: HIPAA Billing & Payment Associate
Company: CVS/Pharmacy
Location: Woonsocket, RI
Job description: Work closely with Third Party agencies to gather specifications and test materials required for conversion to HIPAA II mandated transaction standards. Assist Third Party business and IS personnel in mapping HIPAA transaction data, developing Third Party reporting requirements, performing agency data validation and project documentation requirements. Assist in successfully implementing NCPDP and HIPAA ASCX12 standard requirements for Third Party agencies…
Click here to read more about this position.

Job Title: BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSTS – Health Care Insurance
Company: LOGIN Consulting Services
Location: Ventura County, CA
Job Description: Major health care insurance company has a 3+ month contract available for Business Process Analysts experienced with the insurance/Medicare operations. The Analysts should have HIPAA and EDI experience. Candidates cannot be considered unless they have health care insurance industry experience.

The Process Analysts must be able to facilitate meetings, collaborate with both business and IT organizations, have excellent documentation and communication skills and be self motivated.
The Analysts will obtain the business requirements and will communicate those requirements to the IT operation such that the detailed and technical requirements can be produced.
Click here to read more about this position.

There’s a proposed rule that impacts HIPAA and GINA – no, that’s the name of a specific patient but rather the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (shortened to GINA). The proposed rule was issued on October 1, 2009 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and provides individuals new privacy and nondiscrimination rights with respect to the use of their genetic information in employment and heatlh insurance decisions.

For example, genetic information might include screenings for diseases such as Huntington’s Disease, early onset Alzheimer’s, or breast cancer just to name a few. In the past some women have declined breast cancer screenings for fear of the ability to get and keep health insurance. This just doesn’t make sense, and the new rule addresses this: “The proposed rule would modify the HIPAA Privacy Rule to clarify that genetic information is health information and to prohibit the use and disclosure of genetic information by health plans for underwriting purposes.”

The bottom line? Genetic information can’t be used to discriminate for employment or underwriting purposes. The proposed ruling is subject to a 60 day comment period.

You can read more here.

Original cartoon by David Harbaugh, posted at http://hipaa.bsd.uchicago.edu/cartoons.html

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has some direct impacts and implications for HIPAA implementation and compliance. Individuals now have more rights regarding disclosure of their protected health information (PHI); the privacy and security provisions of HIPAA for covered entities and business associates are expanded as well. Not surprisingly, the ARRA also provides for increased enforcement and penalties for noncompliance.

So what are the big changes?

- Business Associates are now covered under and subject to HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Prior to the ARRA being enacted, only health plans and health care providers (covered entities) were subject to HIPAA. Who is a business associate? “A business associate is any person or entity who performs or helps perform a function or activity on behalf of a covered entity that involves the use or disclosure of PHI. Third-party administrators, utilization reviewers and attorneys who represent covered entities are among the parties who are frequently treated as business associates.” This becomes effective February 17, 2010.

- Individuals must now be notified if there is a security breach of their PHI within 30 days; the local press must be notified if there are more than 500 privacy or security breaches within the same geographic area. Logs must be kept and reported to HHS annually.

- When a complaint is made, the ARRA requires HHS to formally investigate a covered entity or business associate; regular audits for HIPAA privacy and security compliance are now required as well.

- It’s now more expensive than ever to pay for violations. Under ARRA, for violations of an identical requirement during the same calendar year penalties can range, depending on the type of violation, from $100 to $50,000 per violation, with a cap of $25,000 to $1.5 million per year.

For additional information, you can read more at http://www.stradley.com/newsletters.php?action=view&id=439

To meet current growth trends in health IT systems and maintenance, the number of IT workers in the field must increase by 37 percent, says professor of health informatics at Oregon Health & Science University, William Hersh. Looking at current numbers, Hersh found 108,000 full-time HIT works in U.S. Hospitals.

All careers related to health data systems design, maintenance, and mining, including systems technicians and chief medical-information technology officers (CMI-TOs), are in a demand increase phase. This also includes, of course, HIPAA-related IT and compliance officer positions.

This fall, St. Louis University’s Doisey College of Health Sciences in St. Louis, MO will add a master’s degree program in informatics, says Jody Smith, chair of health informatics and information management at the school.

Nurses and physicians are migrating to HIT, according to Bonnie Siegal, a vice president with the health care recruiting firm Cejka Search Inc. Physicians are often found acting as CMI-TOs while continuing their medical practices. Nurses, on the other hand, tend to leave that profession to acts as chief nursing-information technology officers. Both professions can pay into the six figures, with CMI-TOs making upwards of $500,000.

Read more: Techies find niche in health care field

Aug. 8, 2008: QuadraMed CEO Keith Hage, one day after signing a 15.8 million contract with Los Altos Hills, Calif.-based Daughters of Charity Health System, rang the NASDAQ closing bell. The bell comes also one day after QuadraMed unveiled its Smart Identity Exchange, or Smart I/X, a software system QuadraMed says is designed to integrate patient information for medical facilities.

Smart I/X uses a probabilistic algorithm to identify, reconcile, and manage patient records is described by QuadraMed as “a valuable tool for organizations aiming for HIPAA compliance.”

Hagen said: “Smart I/X significantly improves an IDNs ability to deliver consistent and cost-effective high quality care by providing physicians immediate access to comprehensive patient information to help them make more informed and safe decisions at the point of care. In addition to efficiently unifying individual patient’s historical and most current information, Smart I/X enhances enterprise-wide care coordination and minimizes duplicate and overlapping records, all of which reduce unnecessary tests, treatments and medical errors.”

It is unclear at this time what information is available to whom on this system. Patients may want to inquire of their lawmakers how HIPPA laws are applicable to system-wide availability of private medical information across the medical-worker spectrum.

Read more: http://www.silobreaker.com/DocumentReader.aspx?Item=5_888804371 and

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5931497.html.

In Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) news: Aug. 1, University of California, San Francisco health economics professor Robert Miller estimates the cost of implementing a nationwide EHR at $150 billion. Hospitals, Miller says, will need to invest $35 billion of that to purchase and expand systems and $55 billion to maintain and operate them over eight years. Hospital IT spending is currently not in line with other industries, Millers says, and the increase for EHRs would put it closer.

Miller’s figures differ from earlier Rand Corporation and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, which themselves differ. Proponents assert that health IT systems, including EHRs, could shed light on best practices, effectiveness of treatments, disease trends, and save money over the long hail. However, in its June report, the CBO said, “By itself, the adoption of more health IT is generally not sufficient to produce cost savings,” adding that the future economic benefits of health IT systems are uncertain. Additionally, questions remain about maintaining HIPAA compliance.

Drawing numbers from a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, Miller said that fewer than 5 percent of US doctors are currently using EHRs. Equipping the other 96 percent would require $15 billion in initial cost, and another $24 billion increase to physicians’ operating costs.

Read more: http://www.govhealthit.com/online/news/350496-1.html

In order to protect the public from possible abuse of their personal genetic information, Congress has voted to ban genetic discrimination in the workplace. The new law addresses questions raised by advances in genetic testing that go beyond the scope of HIPAA.

The main thrust of this bill is to deny the opportunity to misuse the information. There are some privacy elements in here, as well. Much of that is covered by HIPAA, which was passed now a long time ago.

Read the whole article here

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