Most healthcare professionals are concerned about security issues when dealing with conversion to electronic medical records…and rightfully so! Security problems are not to be taken lightly. The penalty for data breach has risen from $25,000 to 1.5 million as of Feb.18, 2009.
The AMA has issued a web tip sheet addressing the most common questions regarding data encryption, including what it is, how it works and the measures available to implement it. See www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/368/hipaa-phi-encrption.pdf
According to Red Flag Laws buy ventolin inhalers from spain that have been reviewed in a previous newsletter, breaches in health record security must be followed by notifications to patients in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
If you encrypt your data, however, you are exempt from the notification requirement.
A survey conducted by HIMSS found that only 39% of mobile device transmission was encrypted, 44% was encrypted when stored and only 67% of data was encrypted for transmission.
Evidently, we have a distance to go.
