HIPAA and AltaPoint
What is HIPAA?
“The privacy provisions of the federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), apply to health information created or maintained by health care providers who engage in certain electronic transactions, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued the regulation, "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information," applicable to entities covered by HIPAA. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is the Departmental component responsible for implementing and enforcing the privacy regulation. (See the Statement of Delegation of Authority to the Office for Civil Rights, as published in the Federal Register on December 28, 2000.”
Your Responsibility:
Under HIPAA guidelines, it is your responsibility to insure that the data in your office is held secure and safe. It is the responsibility of the provider to choose a medical software solution that will always be up to date with HIPAA regulations and standards. Also, it is necessary for the office staff to insure that all software features regarding HIPAA are being used correctly in order for them to work properly toward HIPAA approval. It is extremely important that any member of the office staff creating or maintaining patient data be educated on HIPAA laws and guidelines.
Our Responsibility:
At AltaPoint, we are keenly aware of the challenges that HIPAA brings not only to the software industry, but to your medical office as well. That is why we at AltaPoint have dedicated ourselves to providing your office with the tools necessary to be a completely HIPAA compliant office. Because HIPAA requires medical offices to be compliant, and not medical software, it is important that we understand exactly what you, as the customer, need to be regulated under HIPAA guidelines. We continue to implement software enhancements that will help you maintain a HIPAA compliant office, such as our innovative electronic signature, our multiple levels of customizable security, our detailed employee/patient audits, our HIPAA Certified ANSI 4010 format, and our terminal auto log-off feature. We are strongly committed to developing present and future solutions to maintaining HIPAA standards. Your office is in good HIPAA standing with AltaPoint.
HIPAA, AltaPoint, and WorkSmartMD:
On October 1st 2003, WorkSmart MD, Inc. (www.worksmartmd.com), an independent HIPAA consulting firm, concluded its HIPAA assessment of the AltaPoint Practice Management software. The assessment was performed by setting up a local workstation running the AltaPoint Practice Management software version 5.0. The conclusion: AltaPoint Practice Management facilitates compliance with many of the HIPAA requirements and can assist health care providers with implementation of the HIPAA standards (see PDF).
HIPAA, AltaPoint, and Edifecs:
In October 2002, ANSI 4010 was selected by HIPAA to be the standard format for submitting electronic claims. All insurance carriers in the United States should be able to receive and process that standard insurance file by October 2003.
As part of our due diligence in ensuring a high-level of quality assurance, we enlisted the services of a third-party validation organization. EDIFECS' HIPAADesk, www.hipaadesk.com, has certified our ANSI 4010A1 837 Professional format as being HIPAA Compliant.
The Pinnacle Practice Management Software
