The 2010 Healthcare IT Survey is a study carried out by Zoomerang,  an online services provider on behalf of Imprivata, a company that develops enterprise authentication and access management solutions and is based in Lexington, Mass. The survey was conducted amongst 600 decision-makers across hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.

80% of respondents said that securing patient information from unauthorized access and data breaches is a top priority in their organization and 76 percent claim breach of confidential HIPAA protected information or unauthorized access to various clinical applications as their greatest security concerns. A full 97% of those surveyed said their organizations planned on spending more on IT security in 2010 than they did in 2009.

And the HITECH act it seems is only complicating things for those in healthcare IT.

Challenges cited by respondents for complying with the HITECH Act included employee education (46 percent), costly updates (43 percent) and meeting deadlines (37 percent). Nineteen percent of respondents said they themselves do not understand the HITECH Act.

Read the full survey report here

HIPAA privacy regulations have always given individuals the right to request restrictions on how health care providers use or disclose their information, but until recently, health care providers have always had the discretionary power to say “no” to these requests if they felt it would impair their ability to properly treat their patient or to get paid by the insurance companies.

However the HITECH amendments recently proposed to supplement the HIPAA laws change that, to a certain degree at least.

Now, when a patient is paying for their own treatment out of their own pocket, or another private individual is footing the bill and they request that you share none of their information you must comply with their wishes.

The patient will also have the right to make their request on a visit by visit basis. For instance if you (or the medical practitioner you work for) regularly sees a patient for a certain complaint that is covered by his or her insurance but then opts to pay out pocket for a non-covered treatment they have the right to request that you share none of the details of the treatment they paid for themselves with anyone, including their health insurance company.

More headaches? Maybe. Tracking which patient procedures can be shared and which cannot may prove cumbersome. But the extra effort will be worth it in the long run to ensure your diligent efforts to remain HIPAA complaint are not derailed.

The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit on HITECH and HIPAA Compliance Management is designed to provide solutions for exposing risks and maintaining compliance with new HIT requirements from the ARRA, HIPAA and health reform. The summit will be held on November 9 – 10 in Arlington, VA. Read on for 10 compelling reasons to attend along with interesting facts about the upcoming conference.

10.  Resources and Checklists are included so you can reduce exposure and risk.  Make HIPAA and HITECH work for you, not against you.

9.  Network in the Exhibit lounge with other executives and HIPAA know-it-alls.

8.  Torpedo Factory Art Center is not part of the conference, but it is one of the free things to do before or after the conference.  Click here for a list of more free things to do in Alexandria.

7. Meet 17 speakers and learn from their experiences.  They’re here to help you, after all.

6. Data Breaches pose a huge liability.  Find out how to identify, track, fix and report a HIT data breach, as well as best practices for organizational recovery.

5.  27 Red Flags of medical ID theft…learn what you need to do to protect yourself and your clients from data breaches and medical ID theft.

4.  Get money from the Recovery Act, Medicaid and Medicare by learning the security frameworks required by these programs.

3.  Save money by registering by October 30: enter code QFZ483 on the registration page for an extra $100 off the current rate.

2.  Bill Clinton is providing the closing keynote address: “Embracing our Common Humanity”.  How often do you get to see the former President up close and personal?

1. Be proactive on your HIPAA and HITECH implementation so that you can make the right strategic and tactical HIT management decisions…learn how to avoid security breaches in the first place!

For more information about the conference, click here.

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.