Security Audits: Is Your Organization Prepared and In Compliance?

In an October 2007 report, the Health and Human Service’s Office of the Inspector General issued a report that found CMS to have fallen short of its enforcement of the HIPAA Security Rule. In 2008, CMS conducted its first series of security compliance reviews to address the serious nature of HIPAA security complaints and evaluate the level of compliance within the industry. A summary report of the findings was made available to the public in June 2009. Security compliance reviews have continued throughout 2009 and will continue indefinitely. In July 2009, the enforcement of the HIPAA Security rule was reassigned to the Office of Civil Rights.Is your organization prepared for a security compliance review? This AHIMA virtual meeting will highlight an expert panel to discuss what you need to know about this important enforcement effort. Don’t be caught unaware when the government visits your organization.

Objectives:

Discuss strategies to ensure compliance with the Security Rule
Identify proactive steps that organizations should take to avoid a potential review
Understand what you should do if you are faced with a security compliance review
Learn best practices from the industry as well as the most common struggles and lessons learned

Audience Benefit:

A visit from CMS can put any organization into panic mode. Without enforcement, organizations may have placed security practices on the back burner, only to be faced with serious consequences. The audience benefits from this virtual meeting by understanding what may potentially trigger a security compliance review; how to be prepared for a security compliance review; and how to ensure your current organizational practices are current and up to date in today’s electronic environment.

Target Audience:

Privacy Officers
Security Officers
HIM Directors/Managers
IT Directors/Managers
CIOs/Risk Managers
Compliance Officers

Continuing Education Units Available: 2
Learning Level: 3 Analysis
Learning Category: Privacy, Confidentiality and Security

Security Audits Virtual Meeting
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009
Time: 12 noon– 2 p.m. CT

Chris Apgar, CISS, President, Apgar and Associates, LLC

Judi Hofman, CAP, CHP, CHSS, Privacy/Information Security Officer, Cascade Healthcare Community

John Parmigiani, President, John C. Parmigiani & Associates, LLC

Description:

In an October 2007 report, the Health and Human Service’s Office of the Inspector General issued a report that found CMS to have fallen short of its enforcement of the HIPAA Security Rule. In 2008, CMS conducted its first series of security compliance reviews to address the serious nature of HIPAA security complaints and evaluate the level of compliance within the industry. A summary report of the findings was made available to the public in June 2009. Security compliance reviews have continued throughout 2009 and will continue indefinitely. Is your organization prepared for a CMS security compliance review? This AHIMA virtual meeting will highlight an expert panel to discuss what you need to know about this important enforcement effort. Don’t be caught unaware when the government visits your organization.

Meeting Day Tips

The virtual meeting link will be sent out on Wednesday, November 25 to those that have registered and paid to participant. Additional technical support will be available on the day of the broadcast.
Before accessing the site, viewers should make sure that they have an active internet connection (preferably with at least 256k download speed, although there is a second stream running at 112kbps), a working soundcard, and windows media player installed on their system. It's preferable that viewers access via a hardwire landline internet connection as opposed to a wireless connection, if they have landline internet available. Multiple users from the same office that shares a network may find that they slow the connection down for everyone on that network.

The program will start at 12 pm Central Time, which means that the stream itself will start playing at 11:45am with the 15-minute clock on screen counting down and playing music. The video program will run from 12pm to 1:30pm, with the first 60 minutes being the presentation, followed 30 minutes of Q&A via the submit question button.

We recommend that people log-in sometime between 11:45am and 12pm to check their connection speed. They will have a choice of 2 speeds: medium and low. They should be able to hear the music playing and see the background video streaming smoothly. If they do not hear music, they should check speaker volume and make sure their sound card is working properly. If the video stream seems choppy, they should log out, then log back in and choose the lower streaming rate on screen. If there are still issues, the user will want to contact their company IT person.

On the page hosting the webcast, viewers will be able to access a submit question button on the lower right of the screen. This will open a window and the viewer will be able to type questions and submit them to be considered by the panel. At the conclusion, viewers can log out simply by closing the window.

Registration Fees

AHIMA members receive discounted pricing for meetings.

Early Bird Pricing (extended through November 20)
AHIMA Member	$190
Price	$240

Regular Registration (after November 21)
AHIMA Member	$265
Price	$315

Contact Customer Relations at 1-800-335-5535 for more information.

Four Ways to Register

Online Registration (credit card only)
Mail registration form and payment to:
AHIMA
Dept. 77-6331
Chicago, IL 60678-6331
Fax registration form to (312) 233-1500 (credit card and purchase order payments only)
Phone (800) 335-5535 (credit card payment only).

Cancellation Policy

If you must cancel your meeting registration, you may either provide a substitute, or cancel your registration. In either case, please notify AHIMA in writing as soon as possible. A $75 processing fee is assessed on all cancellations received two weeks prior to the appropriate meeting date. After that date, the full registration fee will be forfeited unless your registration is cancelled due to an emergency. In an emergency, please notify AHIMA’s registrar of your cancellation via fax, including an explanation for your cancellation. All refunds will be processed within 30 days after receipt.

AHIMA reserves the right to cancel or reschedule a conference due to unanticipated circumstances. In the event of cancellation, registrants will be contacted and the full registration fee will be refunded. AHIMA and ATC are not responsible for any travel arrangement cancellation charges incurred by event cancellations.