Under HITECH—approved as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—business associates (BA) must now comply with the HIPAA security rule, the use and disclosure provisions of the HIPAA privacy rule, and new HITECH privacy and security provisions.
In June 2009, HCPro launched a benchmarking survey of recovery audit contractor (RAC) preparation efforts across the country, and the case management department is well represented.
Despite common knowledge that hybrid systems are worse than either fully paper or electronic records, we continue to see proliferation of models implemented that promote the hybrid record as an extended transition strategy; however, with proper planning, you can avoid entering into a hybrid state.
