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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.

 
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-----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

__________________________________________________________________
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Instant Messengers:  ICQ# 22396626 - MSN IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -
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-----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




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