HIPAAnswers Teams with Halleland for Help Desk, State Preemption Offerings
HIPAAnswers(TM), a leading web-based HIPAA solutions provider, announced today at the Health Care Compliance Association forum in San Diego, CA, that it has teamed with Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson (Halleland) to offer two value-added services: a help desk and state preemption content.
HIPAAnswers (PRWEB) December 11, 2002 -
Minneapolis, MN, December 9, 2002—based HIPAA solutions provider, announced today at the Health Care Compliance Association forum in San Diego, CA, that it has teamed with Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson (Halleland) to offer two value-added services: a help desk and state preemption content.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulations are complex and fall into several categories, including Security, Privacy and Transaction rules. The government estimates that work on HIPAA compliance could take hundreds of hours. To complicate matters, if state privacy rules are stricter than the HIPAA regulations, the state laws apply. This is called “state preemption.” As an example, some states shield minors’ health information from disclosure to parents and guardians. This is more stringent privacy protection than the federal law requires, but under HIPAA identifying this is hard, and that’s why the stricter protection applies.
With Halleland, HIPAAnswers is offering state preemption content to help covered entities navigate the maze of state and federal requirements, promoting compliance with all applicable conditions.
In fact, HIPAAnswers tackles all HIPAA compliance requirements, including the mandatory education component and auditing. The service follows a logical, systematic path through the complex requirements. HIPAAnswers represents an ideal solution for healthcare providers, health plans and clearinghouses because the service tailors itself to the organizationÂ’s HIPAA requirements, enabling staff to concentrate their effort solely on relevant procedures.
For large, more complex healthcare providers such as clinics with sophisticated relationships to, for example, nursing facilities, chemical dependency treatment centers, imaging services and the like, the situation can quickly become several degrees more complicated. While HIPAAnswers still provides a systematic approach to achieving compliance that staff can follow, some will find it more efficient to obtain live consultant assistance. As a result, HIPAAnswers partnered with Halleland Health Consulting, a premier health care consulting firm that can provide additional and specific HIPAA expertise to answer difficult questions efficiently. The experts at Halleland Health Consulting have extensive experience in working through the complex issues associated with health care operations, including questions related to business associate requirements, affiliated entity qualifications, privacy notices, and disclosure accounting.
HIPAAnswers Help Desk blocks of consulting time are available in conjunction with the HIPAAsnwers online compliance service.
HIPAAnswers is a service of Hard Lake Solutions, a Minnesota-based software and consulting company specializing in the healthcare industry.
For more information, please contact HIPAAnswers toll free at 866.326.6785, or visit the Website, www. hipaanswers. com.
