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According to healthcare attorney Susan Miller, detailed evidence of HIPAA compliance and going beyond just the black letter HIPAA rules will be important factors when the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) makes its HIPAA audit rounds this fall. Miller said that OCR has been talking about evidence of compliance since 2009, when it first released the HIPAA Omnibus Rule Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). Evidence of compliance, in my view, goes beyond what the rule asks of an organization, such as where its policies and procedures are. This includes the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPPs), business associate agreements (BAAs), but they've also [made it clear] that organizations must have a breach plan. In no place in the regulation does it say that an organization has to have a breach plan or process. It does makes sense to have a breach plan to know what the organization will do when it has a breach event. I would suggest that organizations have a breach plan that they look at and update yearly. OCR will be looking for specific things in the plans, Miller said, including communication tactics within a breach plan. And Miller tells her clients that they need a detailed training plan, as well as the training materials and sign-in sheet or even some way to know when staff completes computer based training (CBT) modules, depending on how they do training. The important thing is knowing the training was completed. And organizations need something similar to a contingency plan, which is in the Security Rule but the larger organizations name as business continuity and disaster recovery plans. "Think of [the Boston Marathon bombings] - you need something that's going to help you continue to function during these events that are out of the control of the covered entity or business associate (BA)," Miller said.

Tips for navigating Obamacare http://www.westhillinsuranceconsulting.com/blog/westhill-consulting-tips-for-navigating-obamacare/ Think hard before your drop insurance entirely Tambe said that might not make good business sense despite some companies might be tempted to abolish insurance benefits completely and let employees go to marketplaces to get coverage. The problem is insurance purchased on the marketplace will be more expensive for individuals. Then the company will risk talent leaving the company for a competitor who offers them the less expensive option if the company isn't willing to compensate by raising their salary. "It may work to keep costs down but you'll have a hard time keeping talented folks," he said. Other federal programs could help you For households making under 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, the ACA grants subsidies available on the public marketplace under certain circumstances. Additionally there are current efforts for Ohio to spread out the Medicaid program to households making less than 138 percent of the poverty level. This in turn if acted out would make more people eligible for those programs. Not all individuals will qualify for subsidy even though most Americans will be eligible to obtain coverage through the exchange. Employer-sponsored coverage may affect an employee's ability to meet the criteria for the subsidy. If there are many employees qualify for federal assistance, it will be reasonable to let them use those plans, particularly since employees being offered insurance by an employer aren't allowed onto the marketplace if their employer is offering insurance deemed affordable, or 9.5 percent of their wage rate based on 130 hours per month for single coverage. "A lot of folks qualify for these things, and there's no penalty to employers," Tambe said. Know the paperwor