The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement national standards for electronic healthcare transactions. As the national healthcare system continues its digitization progression, providers have to comply with HIPAA to ensure the data of patients is secure. The use of electronic data interchange has increased and will continue to increase even more under provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 or Obama Care. Organizations that do not comply can face substantial penalties under the new standards and operating rules.
A new survey conducted by eFax highlights the perspective healthcare organizations share on compliance, document management and mobile priorities driven by the ACA. According to the company's inaugural Healthcare IT Pulse Survey, more than a quarter of healthcare providers view online fax services as an effective tool for complying with HIPAA.
The survey covered technological priorities in the healthcare industry for 2014 and the challenges they face in a heavily compliance driven industry. This includes a large number of respondents indicating strong adoption rates for mobile technology.
Key findings of the survey include:
- 61 percent of healthcare organizations said fax is one of their top approach for exchanging critical information with nonemployees
- 26 percent said it is the number one approach for exchanging critical information, while digital file transfer was ranked number one by only six percent of respondents
- Email was viewed as the two least used methods of communication for exchanging critical information with nonemployees by 12 percent of health organizations
- 54 percent cited HIPAA compliance more important than document management, organization and record keeping, making it the top concern
- 42 percent of respondents said online fax is the most effective technology solution for helping with HIPAA compliance security
- 37 percent see online fax as the most undervalued technology with respect to security and business needs
Whether the ACA moves forward or not, organizations are concerned about the changes the legislation has brought to the industry. This generally translates to added paperwork for these organizations and HIPAA compliance will play an even greater role as they move forward.
As with any new government regulations it brings with it penalties that greatly inhibit the growth of the industry, and 37 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed rank financial liability because of noncompliance as their biggest concern.
Facing financial penalties because of noncompliance or other regulations is an issue that looms large over the healthcare industry, which doesn't promote innovation at a time when it is badly needed.
"The Affordable Care Act is forcing healthcare providers to re-examine all of their processes for sensitive-document management, storage and transfer. This survey reveals that the healthcare industry continues to place its trust in hosted fax services," said Rick Stevens, director of enterprise marketing for eFax.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
