(EMAILWIRE.COM, December 21, 2000 ) Today President Clinton issued new federal privacy rules for several types of patient medical records, which were initially called for by The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996. These regulations for the sharing of patient data by health providers, health payers and clearing house give the patients more control over how their own information is uses. In October of 1999, proposed rules in HIPPA covered electronic records. The rules issued today set minimum requirements for state medical privacy laws, and the regulations call for fines of up to $50,000 and up to a year in prison for intentional disclosure. Disclosure with intent to sell personal medical data is punishable with a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison. There are also new civil penalties for other violations.With this law patients have the right to see a copy of all of their records (electronic and paper), request corrections in some cases, and be notified about information-handling practices. Health care providers, meanwhile, are restricted from using data for any reason even for treatment and payment purposes without patient consent. The aim to realize these proposals without compromising the security of this information continues to drive the healthcare industry towards the use of open systems, including the Internet, to transmit and process sensitive, patient identifiable healthcare data.Security companies like Baltimore Technologies have provided solutions to securing this information. In order to accomplish this level of security, healthcare organizations need to select tightly integrated e-security solutions to meet the comprehensive requirements of authentication and access control. This is best done by non-refutable, electronic documents. By determining who is entering a system, what they have with them, and where they are authorized to go within that systemhealthcare organizations ensure data only goes to those authorized to use it.If you are interested in speaking with and expert at Baltimore Technologies on what the new security proposals will mean for healthcare organizations implementing new systems, please contact Laura Ackerman at 781-684-0770 or email at baltimore@schwartz-pr.com.

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