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Homeland Security: The Need for HIPAA
By Bill Bysinger, for www.HealthLeaders.com, Oct. 24, 2001

Given the events of September 11, the fabric of the nation is changing from the way we travel, to the events we attend, to how we begin to look at what is happening around us, nothing will be the same.

The new office of Homeland Security has created a new mission for everyone to participate in keeping our nation safe and secure from anyone who would want to put us at risk. The coordination of all of our security and safety forces across the country will be critical in making the nation safe. However, another need that is beginning to be addressed is the coordination of our healthcare resources.

Why HIPAA?

The ability to have an efficient healthcare system to support Homeland Security is critical as we move into the 21st Century. Standardization and security of healthcare information is vital for this mission.

The Case for Standardization

Healthcare must be prepared to efficiently and safely treat any patient in any institution that may be local to a disaster. In these situations, the chances of the patient surviving could be based on the availability of that individual's healthcare information being quickly accessible and easily understood.
  • In most of the developed countries of the world, where socialized medicine is predominant, most patient records are in a single form and in many cases easily accessed electronically.

  • In addition, U.S. military personnel have healthcare records that follow them to their duty stations and are electronically accessible, secure and private.

  • However, the U.S. civilian population does not have this standardization or accessibility.
We in the United States do not have easily accessible healthcare information. It is not standardized, many times our information is not secure, and in too many instances it is not private. This presents a problem for delivering care in a location that the patient has never encountered. This lack of information access could put patients at risk.

During a time of crisis, it is imperative that patient information is available to provide practitioners with the data necessary to treat the patient properly. It is also critical to provide the clinician with a high level of confidence that any drug or treatment administered to the patient will not compromise the patients safety or recovery.

To be ready to handle patients in a moment's notice from any location where a disaster might occur, we will need to begin standardizing our healthcare processes, our healthcare information, and our healthcare collaboration.

This is what HIPAA is about.

Security and Privacy

As well, securing patient information from breech by a foreign source that could use the information to create a local, regional, or national healthcare terror will be critical. Nothing is beyond the scope of opportunity for terrorists. We must seek vigilance in managing and securing healthcare information. We must guard against unwarranted breeches of patient data. We must make our data sources secure, and we must train the staff in the proper process for disclosing information.

The less information we disclose or keep from breech, the greater our chances that our populace will not be open to specific attacks aimed at individuals and groups who have targeted healthcare vulnerabilities.

Again, this is what HIPAA is about.

HIPAA In The National Interest

HIPAA has been moving too slowly. We must be ready to create the healthcare collaboration that is needed in time of crisis.

Since the WEDI Report of 1993, the industry has known the road to success was standardization of process and data, and we are now in a position to create the momentum to make it happen.

HIPAA is not about the government; HIPAA is about better healthcare, and has been from the day WEDI representing the industry delivered that report, which became the groundwork for the HIPAA rules development.

We need to move HIPAA forward to achieve the following:
  • Streamlining the healthcare process

  • Standardizing healthcare data and transactions

  • Securing patient data

  • Insuring privacy of patient information
It is in the national interest to make HIPAA happen. It is critical that healthcare support the cause of protecting our citizens from unforeseen disasters, while we are protecting our country from outside intervention.

The challenge to the healthcare industry is to do the following:
  • Every community should establish cross community healthcare groups (payers, providers, employers, patients, and local governmental agencies) to deliver information collaboration and interaction plans for time of need.

  • Use HIPAA as the springboard for the securing healthcare data.

  • Use HIPAA as the implementer of the “Chain of Trust” processes that empowers secure information collaboration.

  • Make HIPAA a priority in every healthcare organization and venue.

  • Commit to making healthcare standardized, secure, and responsive when called upon to react.
The first HIPAA rules for transactions and code set are to be implemented by October 2002. Rather than continue to debate postponing HIPAA, lets get behind it and make it happen on target. By doing this, we will show the world that the U.S. healthcare system is integral to our Homeland Security efforts, not only through the best patient care, but also through the revitalizing the mainstream of our national continuum of care.

This is how we can prove the healthcare system in the United States is the best in the world.

Leave the debate behind, commit to a better form of healthcare and support HIPAA as the mechanism to deliver the beginning of a new healthcare model for the United States.

Time is of the essence and HIPAA creates the framework for eHealth, the integrated, collaborative model that will carry healthcare effectively into the 21st Century.

This new resolve to make America safe and secure is revitalizing all aspects of the American culture, the American economy, and the American spirit. Lets put American healthcare in a leadership position as we make the secure homeland vision a reality.

(Bill Bysinger, a healthcare entrepreneur, technologist, consultant, and market watcher, has been involved in healthcare for 15 years and in technology for over 30 years. Bill has spent the last eight years heavily involved in administrative and clinical systems for healthcare networks as well as the HIPAA legislative process.

He has visited over 300 healthcare organizations and spoken to thousands of healthcare leaders on a variety of topics from managed care viability to using the Internet to create healthcare value, and he has presented scenarios for the future of healthcare in the 21st century.

Bill sees himself as a frustrated patient and a willing participant in the process of change in the delivery of care. Bill is a consultant to both healthcare technology companies and healthcare organizations. He is on the board of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange in Healthcare, which has been instrumental in working with the Department of Health and Human Services in developing the HIPAA guidelines.)