Association Viewpoint

Making Adjustments

Members of PRISM International seem to be learning to ride the waves of change that 2009 has brought to the industry. As members of the organization prepared to attend our 10^th European Conference (held jointly with NAID Europe in Rome on Sept. 14-16), economic challenges seemed to dominate many conversations (though not for the reasons one might think). The other major issue involves adjustments to changes in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) enacted as a part of February’s U.S. economic stimulus package.

PRISM International’s publications task group (TG10) began surveying members in March to determine a quarterly economic benchmark. The March report measured the fourth quarter of 2008. In August, the measurement was for the first quarter of 2009. Surprisingly, members of PRISM International continue to grow their businesses and have a generally optimistic outlook regarding business growth and sales. Here are some excerpts from the report:

"In all measures, survey respondents remain optimistic about sales, show increases in items in storage over the previous year and most did not implement any types of cost- saving measures during the first quarter of 2009. Job growth continues to outpace losses in the first quarter of 2009, but the gap is narrowing. Most members did not require credit in the first quarter; for those using credit, the market remains tight. Most members who sought credit were able to find it.

"Web based marketing jumped ahead of existing customers to become the most productive channel for marketing. Almost all respondents continue exploring ways to broaden their customer base and increase their value proposition to existing clients as a means of responding to the economic downturn."

U.S. members have been grappling with information and misinformation regarding changes to HIPAA. Most of the changes involve increasing physical and technological safeguards, creating or enhancing HIPAA-driven policies and procedures, training employees, etc. PRISM International’s board of directors has created an ad hoc committee to study a number of insurance proposals to help mitigate the additional exposure of notification requirements in the February law; of note is the publishing of new breach notification rules. These have led to client confusion on one point of particular note to companies that provide confidential destruction services.

Destruction requirements in the rule reference NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Special Publication 800-88, which contains destruction requirements for digital records and top-secret paper records (which require a cross-cut particle size of 1 millimeter by 5 millimeters). Only the digital aspects of NIST 800-88 are referenced in the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule. Shredding requirements in the rule state: "(i) Paper, film or other hard copy media have been shredded or destroyed such that the PHI (personal health information) cannot be read or otherwise cannot be reconstructed. Redaction is specifically excluded as a means of data destruction." Clients can be directed to the Federal Register for independent verification.

The author is executive director of PRISM International, based in Garner, N.C. He can be contacted at jim@prismintl.org.

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