The Tenth National HIPAA Summit will open with special full-day preconference symposium on training for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) certification Wednesday, April 6, 2005. The CIPP certification examination will be offered on the afternoon of Friday, April 8, 2005. The Summit will end with the offering of the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) examination on Saturday, April 9, 2005.

Healthcare privacy and data security has become one of the major policy, technology and operations issues in American healthcare. The HIPAA security rule compliance date of April 2005 looms large. Many institutions are rushing to implement an appropriate HIPAA security compliance program. Most covered entities are seeking to coordinate their security initiatives with their privacy rule compliance program.

The compliance date for the HIPAA privacy rule of April 14, 2003 has passed, but the second generation of HIPAA privacy protections are still being put into place. Likewise, HIPAA transactions and data code sets compliance date of October 16, 2003 has come and gone. CMS has issued a guidance document which effectively provides compliance flexibility so long as covered entities are making good faith efforts to come into compliance.

To make matters more complex HIPAA does not preempt more restrictive state law. Thus, in effect, there are 50 state schemes in healthcare privacy and security, subject to certain federal minimum standards. This complex mix of federal and state law and regulation creates a maze through which healthcare organizations must navigate.

Now HIPAA is being applied to the new frontier created by the bipartisan national initiative around the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) and health information technology (HIT).

HIPAA Compliance is not only complex, but also extremely costly as healthcare moves to electronic data interchange and the Internet and beyond to a variety of new health information technology initiatives. The HIPAA Summit conference series provides a road map to understanding the complex requirements of federal and state law and illuminates strategies for compliance. Through an expert faculty of 75 and over 40 concurrent sessions, the Tenth National HIPAA Summit will go well beyond the simple recitation of the federal HIPAA law and regulations. Of course, the Summit will provide the most up-to-date and sophisticated information on the status and construction of the HIPAA regulations through the presentations of the leading HIPAA regulators from the Department of Health and Human Services. The Summit will focus on the crucial issues of the implementation of the transactions and code sets and the security rule, and will feature practical case studies from the field, including presentations by leading privacy, security and compliance officers from around the country. The Summit will address the complex financial, operational and technical issues that must be addressed not only to comply with the technical requirements of the law, but also to integrate new technologies in order to enhance the efficiency, quality and accessibility of healthcare services.

Course Objectives

Who Should Attend