HIPAA – it’s the elephant in the room of every medical provider. And, we believe that the elephant is going to get much bigger. There is talk about expanding HIPAA to include more types of businesses and processes under the rubric of “covered entities.

”Why might this happen? It’s in the headlines every day. Breaches of data are too common and breaches of private medical information are no longer tolerated. So, how does one justify holding medical providers and insurers to the HIPAA compliance standard and allowing other parties to be less vigilant?

Let’s not forget that the biggest elephant is the federal government (state government is only a bit smaller). The federal government has relied, to date, on the “honor system” for HIPAA compliance – fines and penalties have been rare. We hear that’s about to change and that HIPAA violations will be uncovered and addressed. So, medical providers may want to review steps that they’ve taken and see what they can do next to ensure HIPAA-compliance.

SHAPE Linx™ is a unique secure personal desktop information management and comprehensive connectivity solution. SHAPE Linx provides an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant communication platform that protects information in transit and at rest and it ensures that both the sender and the receiver of information are authenticated and authorized to transfer or access the information.

Before you go elephant hunting make sure you have SSC’s affordable, technology neutral SHAPE Linx information management tool on your desktop.

SHAPE – Secure information at the tip of your finger.

I was struck the other day by two comments made by members of our SSC staff. The first was that there is a progression of where businesses are in their journey to an electronic environment – especially in the health care industry.

Bob’s idea was that there are seven steps along the journey to a secure electronic environment for health care information. You may have a few to add or subtract one or two, but the concept struck me as sound. Bob’s steps were:

1. Paper charts
2. Paper claims
3. Electronic claims
4. Using a picture ID to establish identity
5. HIPAA compliance internal to the organizations
6. HIPAA compliance internally and externally
7. Biometric identity.

He thought that prospects and clients should consider where they are on the journey, where they wish to go and how quickly they need to get there. Then, it becomes a simple matter of helping them implement the SHAPE products and strategies to get them where they want or need to be.

The second comment was made by Brendan. His idea fit well with Bob’s. He pointed out that our solutions could help clients make the transition from drowning in paper to a paperless environment. He has found that some clients and prospects are not ready or willing to move to a paperless world. Our job is to help them make the transition – at their speed and within their needs.

Both of these ideas underscore our mission at Secure Services Corp. That is, to provide solutions that are easy to implement, economical and that provide secure and encrypted communication. And, for health care providers and others using private medical data – it’s a HIPAA-compliant environment.

SHAPE – Secure information at the tip of your finger.