| “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.”
United
States Department of Health & Human Service
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 & I-Team, 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).
See a copy of WorkSmartMD's assesment on AltaPoint's
HIPAA-readiness,
click
here.
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.
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