Professional backup services can help medical services practitioners reach HIPAA compliance for secure off-site storage of electronic records and opens path for expanding ones services to become expert in contingency planning

HIPAA background 
In 1996, Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The legislative goals of HIPAA were to mandate the industry to implement procedures to reduce the administrative costs of healthcare, develop standard transactions for consistency in the industry, promote security and confidentiality of patient records and to provide incentive for the healthcare industry to use electronic communications to make patient records available no matter where the patient was being treated - a process that takes days with manual records - and particularly useful in emergencies. All health care providers, insurance providers, health care clearinghouses or health plans that electronically maintains or transmits health information pertaining to an individual must comply with HIPAA regulations. Failure to comply with the Act's requirements originally had some onerous penalties for disclosure of any element of medical information to sources without need, such as a clerk inadvertently faxing some record to the wrong fax number, would have had both financial and incarceration involved. These penalties have been reduced by interpretation by the Secretary of HHS, who was chartered by the Act to develop the compliance guidelines. The Act, as passed by Congress, set 1998 as the start date for compliance, but the pace with which the Federal Bureaucracy operates has delayed the start date to 2005. All in the healthcare industry are now preparing to comply with the Act.

Steelgate Technologies Online Backup is the ideal subscription service provider product to enable a service provider to deliver mandated services for their clients. You can learn more about the HIPAA requirements by getting a simplified version of the Act's compliance requirements at http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/pl104191.htm .

HIPAA contingency planning
By working with a professional data backup service provider a medical practice or medical information chain participant has a chance to become in compliance with HIPAA. Services that can support specific areas of contingency planning and compliance, include:

• Off-site Data backup plan
• Disaster recovery plan
• Application and data criticality assessment
• Emergency operations plan
• Procedures for above in place

HIPAA requires those in the healthcare industry to have an off-site, encrypted remote electronic data backup and a contingency plan to meet the mandated Administrative Procedures in the Act. Every practitioner, be they doctor, clinic, hospital, testing lab, surgery center, or any of the other organization that provides services to individuals and stores patient medical records, must backup to a secure, encrypted (for privacy) off-site location each day. By working with a professional data backup service provider a healthcare industry participant will be in compliance with HIPAA. Services that can support specific areas of contingency planning and compliance, include:

• Off-site, encrypted Data Backup
• Contingency Planning
• Disaster Recovery
• Emergency Operations
• Privacy

The selection of a professional off-site backup service provider like Steelgate Technologies, who can assure the practitioner that the stored data is encrypted for privacy, can ease one's compliance with the Act by insuring that the practitioner has a secure data backup solution, automatic backups for data storage and recovery. A professional service can also help prepare a written data backup plan for the Act's requirements and assist in preparing contingency plans.

The number of doctors in your area can be learned from contacting your State Medical Board. For example, the Federation of State Medical Boards reports that there are 9,115 doctors registered in Kentucky, 13,257 in Indiana, 1,160 in Alaska, and 2,029 in Delaware. State Medical Boards have web sites from which you can gain the necessary information. In California, for example, the Board's web site is http://www.medbd.ca.gov/. Each doctor who maintains medical records is mandated to automate these records, representing a prospect for backup, recovery, and contingency services.