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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) impacts all health-care professionals, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The administration simplification section of HIPAA includes specific regulations designed to protect the privacy of an individual's health records. These privacy regulations are not designed to impede upon essential health-care practices, but do require that covered providers take reasonable steps to limit the use and disclosure of protected health information. Important aspects of the privacy regulations include the development of facility- or practice-specific privacy policies, the development of a privacy manual, staff training on privacy policies and procedures, and the drafting and posting of a notice of privacy practices. In addition, authorization forms are mandated for instances of use and disclosure of public health information not related to treatment, payment, or health-care operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Yet, prevalence rates are not reported at the county level. Not knowing how many have the disease, and where they are, may be a knowledge barrier to effective health care interventions. We use heart disease drug prescriptions-filled as a proxy measure for prevalence of heart disease. We test the correlation to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and find positive, statistically significant correlations. Next we illustrate the geographic patterns revealed using the county-level prevalence estimate maps. This information can be used to provide a better understanding of sub-state variations in disease patterns and subsequently target the delivery of health resources to small areas in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the security compliance related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) in the U.S. The HIPAA security standards apply to protected health information (PHI) that is either stored or transmitted electronically. PHI is health information in any form that personally identifies a patient. But computer storage devices can be broken or damaged, and the information in them can be erased or corrupted, exposing the data to unexpected change or loss. It is possible to steal thousands of medical records by downloading them onto a small storage device, which can easily be hidden in a pocket. An important aspect of computer security involves protecting electronic data from loss or corruption. It might be a fortunate coincidence that the HIPAA security standards have been mandated just as many family physicians are acquiring Electronic Health Records. INSETS: SPEEDBAR;KEY POINTS.