Guest Columnist
Simplify Healthcare Information Exchange (HIMSS Convention News)
By
Feb 25, 2010 - 4:50:54 PM

Stonebranch Provides Secure Data Transfer to Ensure You Meet
HIPAA and HITECH Mandates

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - It’s hard to ignore recent headlines about data breaches within the healthcare industry. Devastating to your business and patients, data breaches and information tampering has increased 180 percent in the past four years according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). With the new enforcement of HIPAA, the recent HITECH mandates and the reporting required to receive government funds, secure healthcare information exchange is a critical issue for large healthcare networks, small private practices or any one servicing the healthcare industry.

Whether you’re a physician, pharmacist, healthcare office manager, health information or reimbursement professional, you need to know that information is sent securely and quickly while ensuring compliance with government and industry regulations.

What is Driving This Change?

With sensitive and confidential data being sent internally and externally to outsourced providers, insurance companies, laboratories or other physicians – email, FTP and standard mail are no longer viable solutions.

The newly introduced HITECH Act allocates billions of dollars in incentives for healthcare organizations and physicians who can provide “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. But to be considered secure under HITECH, information has to be encrypted at rest (i.e. your desktop, email) or in transit (while being transferred). For example, let’s say a physician sends medical necessity documentation to validate the need for additional tests to an insurance company. That data must be encrypted at all points of file transfer and the responsibility is yours.

Stonebranch: Securing Data From Infrastructure to People

Stonebranch’s integrated solutions – Infitran™ and Scribbos™ – provide end-to-end data encryption to secure your healthcare communications enterprise-wide, from infrastructure to people. Whether the communication is internally between applications, for external exchange with business partners or ad hoc file transfers between departments, Stonebranch provides innovative solutions that scale to any environment.

Scribbos™, available as a Web-based solution or on-premise software, enables you to securely send confidential information and large files to patients, payors, business associates and other covered entities on an ad hoc basis.

Because Scribbos is as easy to use as email and requires no IT experience, employees will not attempt to circumvent the process of sending out private healthcare information without the proper security measures.

You can send and receive protected information, x-rays, lab results, doctor’s orders, medical records, insurance claims, billing statements and other documents over the Internet with the necessary encryption and security enforcement.

This eliminates the long process of sending paper medical records to payor organizations, patients, law firms or other requesting agencies by mail. Instead, simply attach all pertinent documents to Scribbos and securely send your healthcare information, thus driving shorter response times, lowering supply costs and reducing DSO (day sales outstanding).

Scribbos provides quick R.O.I. through reduced cost and time, ensuring higher levels of customer service. Additionally, Scribbos can be integrated into your current applications, including billing, customer service and back-end applications.

Infitran is the ideal Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution for large healthcare organizations that need to secure file transfer throughout their entire IT infrastructure due to the large amount of transfers that are processed on a daily basis.

Most large organizations are riddled with file transfer products, tools and utilities that cannot interoperate. This makes securing data enterprise-wide difficult and cost prohibitive. With the amount of data transferred by healthcare organizations increasing everyday, it is imperative you implement a modern, cost-effective solution that adheres to current security requirements in the industry.

From an IT standpoint, Infitran provides the enterprise-wide level of data security needed for the efficient flow of secure data transfer within the organization and for B2B transfers. You are able to streamline the audit process and access audit information from a central point, saving your organization time and money. Infitran integrates with platforms enterprise-wide to increase automation and reduce the need for specialized staff. This allows your staff to follow all elements of a file transfer and determine the impact of potential problems before they become a business-critical issue.

Additionally, Infitran supports the most modern security standards and methodologies including SSL encryption, X.509 and proxy certificates.

A One-Two Punch

Infitran integrates with Scribbos to provide secure data exchange within and outside of your organization offering expanded opportunities depending on your needs. You gain:

Flexible visibility tools and capabilities to meet your organization’s needs
Integration of file transfers, avoiding costly delays
Peace of mind that you are compliant with HIPAA and HITECH mandates at all levels of your organization, internally and externally
Solutions that scale to meet your needs
A competitive advantage over other healthcare organizations by providing quicker response times to patients and partners
The ability to plan and analyze utilizing intelligent data
Enforcement of standards and user-enforced rules

As the old adage goes, “Time is money.” Does waiting for data cost your business revenue? Infitran and Scribbos optimize the integration of file transfers and other communications with your business processes to avoid delays and help you maximize your revenue.

Bottom line: Protect your healthcare organization by implementing a secure healthcare solution. The Stonebranch solution ensures your peace of mind, reduces your business risk and enhances customer and partner relationships while adhering to the increasingly strict healthcare regulations. What are you doing to ensure the security of your and your patients’ data? Without secure data transfer measures in place, you risk the loss of customers, revenue and ultimately, your reputation.

Author Bio: Nicole Shingler is Director of Healthcare Solutions for Stonebranch with more than 14 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She can be reached at: nicole.shingler@stonebranch.com.

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