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URAC BOARD APPROVES HIPAA PRIVACY ACCREDITATION
STANDARDS
Twenty Companies In-Process for Accreditation
Washington, D.C. - URAC announced
today that its Board of Directors has approved the nation's
first independent HIPAA Privacy accreditation program for
Covered Entities and Business Associates, and that 20 companies
are currently in the process of seeking accreditation for
the program. URAC's HIPAA Privacy Accreditation program enables
health care organizations to display a commitment to fair
information practices, and demonstrate that they have taken
the necessary steps to protect health information privacy
in accordance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
When Congress created the groundbreaking HIPAA legislation in
1996, it included compliance with a specific set of requirements related to the
privacy of protected health information (PHI), but charged the health care
industry itself with determining the operational standards necessary to
evaluate compliance. As one of the industry's leading accreditation bodies,
URAC became a focal point for the creation of an operational framework through
which health care organizations could implement and validate their HIPAA
Privacy compliance programs.
"URAC Board approval of the HIPAA Privacy standards
marks the final step in developing a much needed accreditation system verifying
that an organization has put in place the necessary infrastructure and
implemented the necessary processes to comply with the HIPAA Privacy
Rule," said Garry Carneal, URAC president and CEO. "I would like to
personally thank all of the applicants in our beta group for helping us reach
this moment."
Members of a "beta" group supply feedback to URAC
as they test accreditation standards and processes to ensure that they are
appropriate and effective. The beta group of in-process applicants for HIPAA
Privacy accreditation is composed of 20 companies operating in more than 60
different sites across the nation.
They are:
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American Specialty Health, Inc.,
and its affiliates including:
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American Specialty Health Plans of California
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American Specialty Health Networks
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American Specialty Health Insurance Company
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Healthyroads
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BCE Emergis
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BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc.
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
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HMO Louisiana (BCBSLA subsidiary)
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Health Ink & Vitality Communications
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Imogen Systems
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MedRisk, Inc.
-
Fiserv Health and its family of Health Plan Partners:
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Employee Benefits Services
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Benesight
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Harrington
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Fiserv Health of Kansas
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Fiserv Health of Tennessee
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National Imaging Associates, Inc.
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Wausau Benefits
"The breadth of the beta group of applicants for HIPAA
Privacy Accreditation is quite impressive," said Lisa Gallagher, senior
vice president of URAC's Information and Technology Accreditation Department.
"We designed the program with the ability to serve organizations of
virtually any size and with the flexibility to meet the exact and differing
needs of both Covered Entities and Business Associates. Receiving feedback from
such a large number of beta applicants has enabled URAC to successfully test
and validate this program."
Running on a parallel course to the HIPAA Privacy standards,
URAC has also initiated the beta test phase for the HIPAA Security standards -
based on the recent publication and release of the final Security Rule from HHS
- and is actively seeking Covered Entities, Business Associates and others
interested in joining the beta group for Security Accreditation. The HIPAA
Security standards will be finalized at the end of April.
URAC HIPAA Privacy Accreditation is awarded for a two year
period, at the end of which an accredited organization must submit a
reaccreditation application for URAC's review before accreditation is granted
for additional two year periods. For more information contact Eamon Bobowski of
URAC's Information and Technology Accreditation Department at (202) 216-9010
x8835 or by sending e-mail to ita@urac.org.
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URAC is a leader in the accreditation of health and managed
care organizations. Founded in 1990, URAC currently offers more than 16
accreditation programs that span a broad spectrum of health care services. URAC
has issued over 2,300 accreditation certificates to more than 500 health care
programs. URAC-accredited organizations do business in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada and provide services to more than
120 million people.
For more information about URAC, call (202) 216-9010 or visit
http://www.urac.org.
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