Health Information

Online schools instruct future Health Information Technicians (also known as Medical Records Technicians) to handle patient accounts and serve as a liaison between the doctor and the patient. Through the Internet, individuals can earn a college degree in Health Information Technology at their own convenience, and without giving up current employment.

One of the fastest-growing and highly-paid fields in medical administration, Health Information Technology combines IT with Health Care Administration. Health Information Technicians and medical records managers are highly trained individuals who serve as a connection between the doctor and the patient. They assign diagnostic codes to patients’ records in order to determine the amount of insurance reimbursement the facility will receive, while making sure each patient’s account complies with current privacy laws.

An online Health Information Technology curriculum includes training in medical terminology, physiology, and anatomy, as well as IT. Graduates must pass a written examination to be certified as a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT).

Working professionals can go online to earn 100 percent of the credits needed for certification as a Medical Coding Specialist, or to get a degree in Health Information Technology. Distance learning courses make it convenient to advance your education on your own time and without commuting to classes.

Available online degrees include Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Health Information Technology, a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Health Information Management, a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis on Health Information Technology, and many others.

If you are a technically-minded person who would like to work in a challenging and lucrative medical environment, an education in Health Information Technology may be right for you.

If you are interested in learning more about Online Health Information Technician Schools, feel free to research our site for more in-depth information and resources.

Copyright 2006 – All Rights ReservedMichael Bustamante, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc. for SchoolsGalore.com

Notice to Publishers: Please feel free to use this article in your Ezine or on your Website; however, ALL links must remain intact and active.

Did you know that 2.7 million Americans were affected from around 32 major health information breach incidents recently? The bulk of the people were affected by the information breach that occurred with the Insurer Health Net and its business associate IBM. The Federal list released on June 22nd lists all the major healthcare information breaches that occurred from September 2009 wherein somewhere to the tune of around 11 million individuals were affected. The Health information breaches continued unabated with firstly the health net incident followed closely with the theft of a desktop computer at the Eisenhower medical center that compromised information security of over 5, 00,000 individuals.

There was large number of information security breaches since 2009 ranging from thefts of hard drives (BlueCross Blueshield of Tennessee), laptop (AvMed), and backup tapes (New York City Health &Hospitals Corp.) resulting in compromising sensitive medical and health information of millions of people. Even as the full and final version of the HITECH breach notification rule is expected to be released later this year as part of an ‘omnibus’ package that would include several rules, the current version requires that organizations should conduct risk assessment to determine any incident that could be a potential threat and if it does cause harm, the eventual breach must be reported.

So is it really that difficult for healthcare organizations to take the right action as far mitigating such information risks are concerned? Actually no! It is not difficult if a prudent medical practitioner or healthcare enterprise owner ensures that healthcare compliance measures are in place by adopting the appropriate HITECH compliance solution. All that a healthcare organization needs to do is to enforce such a security policy that can restrict any unauthorized access. SecureGRC, an automated compliance solution from eGestalt, can help healthcare organizations deal with their compliance woes comprehensively. The solution is so designed that it can identify, remediate and maintain HIPAA and HITECH compliance for all healthcare organizations that handle Patient Health Information.

SecureGRC is equipped to help healthcare organizations achieve and maintain compliance to regulations set forth in both HIPAA and HITECH acts. Additionally, since the solution can be delivered via Cloud, not requiring any custom hardware investments, the compliance solution is actually future-proof! The solution not only automates the audit process but also provides concrete evidence of what risks need to be addressed and also how it should be addressed. eGestalt makes it easy to stay clear of Health information breaches with its fully optimized solution that addresses all healthcare compliance issues.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act allows for the continuing health insurance coverage for people even as they become unemployed or when they change jobs. The Act also provides for the standards that would help ensure the privacy of an insured’s information when it comes to electronic transactions with regards to health care.Starting in April 2003, the Act has safeguarded the use and divulging of what is called “Protected Health Information” or those that is related to an individual’s health status, health care provision or they payment for such that may be traced back to an individual. The HIPAA is an ever growing concern now as hospitals, health care insurers and even doctors and other health professionals extend their businesses online. Right now, it is possible to get your medical tests results online, or perhaps get a prescription via e-mail or online. With the advent of Health 2.0, a lot more processes are now possible online where it used to require a visit to the doctors’ office.Web Application Security and the HIPAAIf you run a health-related site that collects, stores, and transmits patient data and information, it is best to make sure that your Web application security is up to HIPAA standards. The HIPAA requires that Web sites should be able to:1. Encrypt all data that is to be transmitted, archived or stored.2. Store all data, this includes backups and easy recovery.3. Restrict access to relevant data only to authorized personnel.4. Protect all data from being altered or tampered.5. Destroy all data when they are not going to be used anymore.How a Web Application Firewall Can HelpA Web application firewall can examine all packets of data that is transmitted from or to an application; thereby letting you screen and block specified content. Web application firewalls can help prevent hacking attacks that uses the holes in your Web applications itself. This helps you to protect the data you have on your systems from falling into unauthorized hands. With a hacking attack, the hacker can retrieve the information you have stored, and can get copies of all incoming data after putting malware on your system that allows him or her to record the activities on your system or Web site.Aside from this, a Web application firewalls can also help you keep out viruses and other malware that can destroy data you want to keep, or alter these data according to the way it is programmed.The sad thing is that, most Web hosts can easily offer a Web application firewall, but opts not to. If you have a health related Web site, be sure to get a host that offers this kind of protection.

NaviNet was proud to be part of Health Information Technology: Creating Jobs, Reducing Costs, and Improving Quality, produced by the Massachusetts eHealth Institute and the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, April 29 and 30, 2010. The conference, which was hosted by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, was packed with leaders from the healthcare IT industry who shared best practices, innovative initiatives and thought leadership, and mapped strategies for meeting the government’s ambitious goals for Meaningful Use.

Massachusetts is home to experts in all areas of healthcare – practitioners, vendors, educators, policymakers – so it was fitting to convene this national conversation in Boston, our capital city. As Bernie Monegain, editor, HealthCare IT News, outlined in her coverage of the conference, 95% of Massachusetts citizens have health insurance, 45% of doctors have electronic health records (EHR) in place and 50% are using computerized physician order entry (CPOE) — five times the national average.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Technology (ONC) believes that health information exchange (HIE) is critical infrastructure required to support Meaningful Use, so HIE dollars were among the first released from the HITECH Act stimulus. For more than a decade, many forms of HIE, most notably Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOS) and Community Health Information Network (CHINS) (click here to learn more) have struggled to find a viable business model. To help HIEs flourish in every state, ONC is providing not only funding, but expertise and resources to help new HIEs learn from the past.

Some state HIEs that operate today offer hope for future success. In Massachusetts, the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN) represents a stable HIE that connects payers, providers and hospitals, and Indiana’s Health Information Exchange has facilitated clinical data exchange for several years. Both were discussed on a panel at the conference where the case was made that HIE infrastructure must be developed before providers and hospitals can become Meaningful Users of HIT.

The HIT industry will play an important role in supporting the government’s vision. For more than a decade, NaviNet has been building and operating a network that can connect hundreds of thousands of providers across all 50 states. NaviNet has offered some HIE services to state-designated entities (SDEs) for free as a way to help them solve some of the challenges they face.

For those interested in following HIE developments closely, ONC sponsors a resource to track which states are leading the way. The State Health Information Exchange Leadership Forum is a body of state leaders from across the country tasked with identifying and sharing best healthcare IT practices. Their SHIE Toolkit includes HIE planning documents on a variety of topics from governance to technical infrastructure to finance, and is a useful resource for state officials developing HIE as well as members o the public interested in tracking the industry.

Regards,James M. BogdanSVP Payer and HIE Solutions