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Security

By Jay Levine, VP of Marketing PBHS
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As seen in the March 2000 edition of the AAOMS Newsletter: Practice Management Notes


All patient correspondence and form processing through your web site should be secured. While today’s web browsers have integrated security features, your web site actually enables those security features. Therefore, your web designer or hosting service must provide the appropriate security certificates that activate the encryption of all sensitive data.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), perhaps better known as the Kennedy Kassebaum bill, was passed on August 21, 1996. HIPAA contained a section called Administrative Simplification, which was:

"intended to reduce the costs and administrative burdens of health care by making possible the standardized, electronic transmission of many administrative and financial transactions that are currently carried out manually on paper."

While the government supports the electronic facilitation of workflow within the practice, there is no recognized single standard that integrates all the components of security that must be in place to preserve health information, confidentiality and privacy as defined in the law as of this date. So it is important that you work with a web designer or hosting service that understands your security needs. < back | next >

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Jay Levine is Vice President of Marketing for PBHS Inc.

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