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HIPAA     

HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act)

In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released new privacy standards prohibiting the release of individually identifiable health information. The standards, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), specifically include schools, colleges and universities.  Under the new rules anyone who allows confidential health information to become public whether intentionally or unintentionally can be fined as much as $50,000 and imprisoned up to five years.  As well, parents have the right to review their child’s medical information and require correction of erroneous data.

 Parents and educators concerned about the impact of new HIPAA standards should ask:

  • Who dispenses health care and medications at my school?   
  • How are student medical records transmitted, stored and accessed?   
  • What safeguards does the school offer parents, who have the right to check their child’s record for accuracy?

How do privacy breaches happen? The average school nurse sees more than 50 students a day and accumulates more than 10,000 medical records a year. Many schools still use paper charts.  Others track health data as part of a School Administrative System (SAS).  These systems allow teachers, administrators, information technology employees and sometimes even parents to access student records.   About 6,000 schools across the United States have automated their health office with specific health office software.  According to the only certified results produced last year, over 63% of the schools purchasing software for their health office in 2000, purchased Healthmaster’s HealthOffice 2000 software.               

Why is purchasing Healthmaster so important to a HIPAA Compliance Strategy?

  • Each time a medical record is changed, a liability risk is incurred based on the changes.  It is imperative that the software chosen for automation contain an “audit log” to irrevocably track all changes to the medical record.  This “audit log” must then become part of the permanent record and be attached to the record if the student transfers schools.  Employing this procedure protects the District in the event that a change or reasons for a change are brought into question.  HealthOffice 2000 is the only software package that has the audit log as part of the permanent record.
     
  • If medical information is kept on paper, another important step is to insure that it’s the nurse that is recording the medical information, storing the information and that only authorized individuals have access to the place such records are stored. The difficulty of protecting confidentiality and enforcing restricted access to a paper based record system will dictate the automation of confidential medical information in all schools, large and small. For schools that are automating or have automated systems, it is critical that the database containing their student medical information is separate from the school’s administrative database. Only systems containing extensive multi-level security that not only restrict access to the database, but also provide further security protection for medical information once access has been granted should be considered. There should also be another level of security for especially sensitive information such as pregnancy, abuse, HIV and the myriad of other problems that have unfortunately become a part of today’s school environment. Although clerical people can be given restricted access to enter demographic information, confidential medical information must be protected. Even the district’s Information Technology Administrator and staff should only have extremely restricted access to the student medical database and the software chosen should use encryption techniques wherever possible.  Healthmaster’s HealthOffice 2000 suite is designed exactly to comply with these security and confidentiality requirements.  It has multi-level security, password protected access, and data encryption.

HIPAA’s new regulations are a significant change for the standard operating procedures of schools.  HealthOffice 2000 can greatly reduce the burden of compliance while allowing for better care of the students in a school districts charge.  It is the only software package specific to the school health market that can truly claim it addresses each of the issues involved in HIPAA’s standards.