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If Tim is invoking the UK I will invoke France: d'accord! As a lawyer working HIPAA issues I see the same penny wise/pound foolish (euro foolish?) approach. In fact, our healthcare practice group has discussed the need for internal standards for rejection of potential HIPAA clients who aren't willing to do what they need to, but just want a lawyer to bless whatever they've chosen to do - and guess who they will sue if/when they screw up? I also think it would be a worthy exercise to try to develop HIPAA professional standards, and while I also have no time to lead it, would be happy to help out. Finally, from a professional POV I'd love to hear more from Tim (off-list?) re: the FLA complaints about HIPAA consultants "practicing law." Not something I intend to pursue, but I have seen some v. bad "legal advice" coming around from people who ought to know better. From: John R. Christiansen Preston | Gates | Ellis LLP 701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98104 *Direct: 206.613.7118 - *Cell: 206.799.9388 * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reader Beware: Internet e-mail is inherently insecure. Unencrypted e-mail may be accessible to unauthorized viewers, e-mail content may have been modified or corrupted, and e-mail headers or signatures may incorrectly identify the sender. If you wish to confirm the contents of this message or identity of the sender, or wish to arrange for more secure communication please contact me using a communications channel other than a "reply" to this e-mail. Thank you. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 12:43 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: A Old New Thought Chris, As they say in the UK, Hear Hear! A million kudos to WEDI & SNIP However, you inferentially touch on another important point, that I would like to throw out and see what the group thinks. I am increasingly concerned about professionalism in our chosen industry space. I do not mean to say that our members are acting unprofessionally at all. To the contrary, everyone I know who is active in this space has demonstrated the utmost in professionalism. What I am concerned about are the late coming businesses who are now approaching their compliance work, and think that it is just a simple IT problem, and are staffing it accordingly. I am astounded by business people who think they can hire for $35/hr a HIPAA Expert of any stripe. Having just finished a call with a recruiter who wanted to hire me for a state contract, where the state put a cap of $50/hr on outsourced contractors, and expected the contracting company to accept full responsibility for their work product. This is nuts. I presently advise a couple of IT integrators, and am helping them develop professional development programs for their personnel, and am working with their legal departments to protect them. But I see a deluge in the making here, where CE's will gobble up displaced IT talent, thinking that's all they need for Transactions, Privacy, and Security. I am also seeing an emerging trend toward putting the fire to HIPAA consultants here in Florida, where complaints are being filed that they are practicing law without a license. This is a very important issue, that is very much overlooked. It is also one that I have personal experience with, in that in the mid-80's I published a product called "Personal Lawyer" - what saved our hide was the fact that we had a licensed attorney on the team. How many HIPAA consultants have an attorney on their team? I do! So, my somewhat rambling point is this. What should we (as in collective body of HIPAA Experts) do to promote and develop professionalism? At this time there is no magic MCS-HIPAA certification (though there are a couple of courses worth note). There really are not many benchmarks that can be used, and with the IT and Telecom collapse, CE's think that they can get equivalency on the cheap. Personally, I think this benefits no one. I sympathize with Industry, but we understand the risks, the ethics, and the boundaries. So perhaps we should look at defining what a HIPAA professional is? I think that we also have an obligation to those out there in CE space, to help get them the recognition they deserve. If anyone is interested, perhaps what we need is a HIPAA Industry Professional Practices Organization for HIPAA practitioners! Anybody want to take the HIPPO by the horns (so to speak)? I would be happy to help, but have too full a plate to create it. Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. President, HIPAA Help Now Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.hipaahelpnow.com Executive Co-Chairman for Privacy, HIPAA Conformance Certification Organization(tm) (HCCO(tm)) www.hipaacertification.org __________________________________________________________________ Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. - Instant Access Phone: 727-787-3901 Cell: 305-753-4149 Fax: 240-525-1149 Instant Messengers: ICQ# 22396626 - MSN IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Yahoo IM timmcguinness - AOL IM: mcguinnesstim __________________________________________________________________ =========================================================================== IMPORTANT NOTICE: This communication, including any attachment, contains information that may be confidential or privileged, and is intended solely for the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender at once, and you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message is strictly prohibited. Nothing in this email, including any attachment, is intended to be a legally binding signature. -----Original Message----- From: Christopher J. Feahr, OD [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 1:21 PM To: Larry Watkins; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Certifications Larry, Thanks for this summary. The scope of work that WEDI-SNIP not only carved out for itself 3 years ago, but has actually accomplished, is nothing short of mind-boggling... an entirely un-funded, volunteer-driven effort! Sometimes, it's easy to get lost within one narrow aspect of this undertaking (I'm actually "lost" in 5 or 6 of these Black Holes!) and to forget about the magnitude of the entire "HIPAA Mandate".... a giant bundle of requirements dropped on the door-step of healthcare, with a sticky-note that said, "Please figure out how to do this by 10/02... and by the way, your budget is $0.00." Recently, things have gotten a little turbulent here in the old shark-tank, but I am confident that the industry is going to like what comes out of the "spirited" debate. Let's try to keep our minds open and our weapons holstered. SNIP is a sound vessel with a loyal crew... and the industry is lucky to have these folks. Possibly other organizations will form to assist in some particular aspect of this gigantic effort... and maybe some white papers will be edited or rewritten, and maybe some areas of responsibility will be reassigned down the road... if that makes sense to most of us. I suspect that many public-benefit efforts hit these emotionally-charged decision points and just have to get through them, without sinking the ship. From my look-out station, however, I would say that the industry is still basically on course and still heading where we all want to go. Best regards, -Chris Christopher J. Feahr, OD Optiserv Consulting [For the vision care industry] Santa Rosa, CA 707-579-4984 707-529-2268 (cell/pager) http://VisionDataStandard.org http://Optiserv.com <P>The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited.