Thursday, January 13, 2011

Proposed HIPAA Changes May Affect Transcription, Digital Dictation Deployments

Healthcare organizations that have adopted digital dictation and transcription technologies are advised to take note of the proposed changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Among the proposed changes is the access to health information for patients. Organizations that maintain electronic records, such as those created when doctors use digital dictation and speech recognition, must offer electronic copies to patients upon request.

The updates would also extend the data security mandates under HIPAA to cover business associates for healthcare organizations. This would pertain to transcription services that are used by many hospitals and doctor's offices. These third-party companies would be required to sign agreements to ensure they also comply with HIPAA.

"While health information technology will help America move its healthcare system forward, the privacy and security of personal health data is at the core of all our work," federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.

More information on this subject and others concerning digital dictation can be found at American Dictation Corp.  The website is also a leading source for digital dictation and speech recognition tools and software.

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