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Securing the Medical Office with Taceo

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:03:30 +0000

OVERVIEW

Operating a medical practice is assiduous work requiring great
attention to detail on a variety of fronts. Patient privacy has
always Been an important concept in the medical profession. New
laws are taking this notion a step further, making it mandatory
for medical facilities to protect individually identifiable
health information. Government regulations such as the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and others
stipulate the how your digital records containing sensitive
patient information should be kept secure, but caring for your
patient’s privacy is just good business.

One of the most time and labor consuming tasks in maintaining an
electronic medical record is importing non-digital patient
information such as radiology reports, hospital dictation and
consultation/referral letters is an extremely time and labor
consuming task in maintaining an electronic medical record. This
is unfortunate because most of this information is already in
digital format at the sender’s location but printed to paper for
transit. Transmitting digital information securely, however, can
be problematic at best. Simply emailing a document to an
intended recipient would potentially violate a patient’s privacy
since the mail could be intercepted in transit or read by
unauthorized persons on the destination email server before it
is downloaded. Also, it would be impossible to tell whether or
not the document was tampered with or was sent by someone
electronically pretending to be someone else. For example, to
promote office efficiency, medical offices that want to allow
physicians to provide electronic mail as a means to transmit
information are forced to have an “email disclaimer” that can
not guarantee the privacy of information contained in an email.
The information may be confidential and subject to protection
under the law, but the fact remains that no real protection is
provided as a preventative for security breach of your
information.

Whether you are a healthcare provider, payer or pharmaceutical
company you have electronic information that must be protected.
Essential Taceo virtually eliminates the costs associated with
safeguarding Protected Health Information (PHI). With Taceo you
are now free to email medical advice to your patients, send
prescription requests to the smallest of pharmacies and safely
deliver patient records to referral doctors.

HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (HIPAA)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
of 1996 was designed to create a new national standard for
protecting the privacy of patient’s health information. HIPAA
also focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of
the Healthcare system, by encouraging the development and
adoption of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between healthcare
providers, payers and pharmaceutical organizations. HIPAA also
stipulates the strict requirement for organizations to establish
safeguards to protect the integrity and confidentiality of an
individual’s Protected Health Information (PHI). HIPAA applies
to individual healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare
insurance providers. The law also pertains to organizations that
deal with the electronic PHI of customers, employers and
patients. Civil and criminal penalties can result from
noncompliance and security violations.

PENALTIES FOR HIPAA VIOLATIONS

HIPAA calls for civil and criminal penalties for security and
privacy breaches. General failure to comply is $100 per penalty;
violations of an identical requirement may not exceed $25,000
per year. For example: it would be considered a violation to
email claim or file with identifiable patient information that
is not encrypted. Even though one requirement may not exceed
$25,000, HIPAA has more than 15 named security standards, which
if repeatedly violated could quickly grow to more than $375,000.
More severe criminal penalties also apply to more flagrant HIPAA
violations. Wrongful disclosure of PHI can result in a $50,000
penalty and up to one year in prison. Offense with intent to
sell of misuse patients protected health information is
punishable with a maximum $250,000 fine and/or 10 years
Imprisonment.

TACEO: HELPING TO NAVIGATE THE HIPAA MINEFIELD – COMMON HIPAA
SCENARIOS AND TACEO

Medical office wishes to refer and identifiable PHI to another
healthcare provider.

A primary care physician examines an individual and determines
that he would like to send the patient to another provider for
further diagnosis or treatment. The physician then asks his/her
assistant to assemble and email the patient’s history and
physical (H&P), imaging reports, labs, progress notes, etc. to
the off-site healthcare provider for review. Unfortunately, the
physician and his assistant are in now violation of HIPAA
regulations.

Unprotected email is like sending a post-card through
cyber-space. While transiting it is routed through multiple
servers, an email containing patient PHI can be easily read by
people other than the designated recipient (the off-site
provider). Furthermore, the patient’s records, because of an
accidental keystroke, could be unintentionally misdirected to an
unknown party, thereby increasing the severity of the security
breach. The physician’s assistant could have used Taceo to
protect the email and attachments. With the quick click of a
button the worker could have prohibited the patient records from
being printed, forwarded and edited. The outgoing documents
would be encrypted and un-accessible to anyone besides the
intended recipient healthcare provider. (Even if the receiving
healthcare provider is not fully set-up to work with electronic
patient healthcare information, they can still securely view
patient records without violating patient confidentiality.)

On-line Pharmaceutical Provider

A pharmaceutical provider fills prescriptions via on-line
ordering, but cannot meet HIPAA secure transmission requirements
for emailing regarding prescriptions and medications, order
confirmation, and other information to their patients. The
organization could resort to analog methods such as calling each
individual customer or sending information to the customers via
standard post, however these methods are very inefficient and
cost prohibitive. To meet HIPAA regulations the on-line
prescription provider must shoulder the burden of hiring and
training a number of new employees at great cost. What is the
on-line pharmacy to do?

With Taceo, the pharmaceutical provider can securely send
prescription information, order confirmations and more to their
clientele. The confidentiality and integrity of emails
containing protected health information (PHI) is enforced and
maintained even after delivery. Nearly any customer with a PC1
can easily download the free version of Taceo, enabling them
receive and reply protected email.

Taceo’s usage permissions interface provides the company with an
effective way to assign flexible rights management controls
based on the profile of the client. Emails Containing
prescription information can be set to expire when no longer
valid.

Healthcare giver wishes to provide individual patients medical
advice via email

To provide added value, a healthcare provider wishes to
establish an easy and affordable way to give their patients
medical advice over the web. The provider must have the ability
to send and receive protected medical advice from work or home
and cannot afford the installation, maintenance and expensive
licensing fees associated with available server-based solutions.
Furthermore, the caregiver’s patients are largely non-technical
and will not bother with cumbersome key exchange, s/mime and
other requirements commonly associated with widely available
encryption technologies.

Additionally, encryption software does not protect content after
it has been delivered. Once opened, the patient’s identifiable
medical information is totally exposed; email can be
accidentally forwarded, laptops and PCs can be lost or sold with
PHI remaining on the hard-drive, patient info could be leaked
via virus, spy-ware or Trojan worm. Unauthorized individuals
gain access and doctor-patient confidentiality is breached. The
caregiver must be able to ensure that received documents remain
encrypted and can be deleted from the patient’s computer after a
given time. How can the healthcare provider utilize the power of
email to give medical advice while keeping sensitive patient
data secure?

Taceo helps healthcare professionals meet HIPAA requirements for
the secure storage, transmission and delivery of identifiable
patient information. Taceo makes the sending and receiving of
secured email and documents quick and easy. From the desktop or
MS Outlook®, providers can encrypt and apply usage permissions
to control and prevent actions as forwarding, cut/copy/paste,
printing and disabling the Print Screen key. Email and documents
can also be set to “expire” and will become unreadable at a
given time and date.

Taceo is by no means a comprehensiven overall HIPAA security
solution, however if used properly can help your business to
inexpensively meet most of the critical rules.

TACEO FEATURES AND BENEFITS

• Protect EPHI from theft, misdirection and unauthorized
distribution. • Allows primary care providers and specialists to
instantly and securely share patient records with little cost. •
Enables patients to easily access and securely reply to
protected emails containing medical advice, prescription
information and more from their home or work computers. • Gives
off-site providers an easy method to access and reply to secure
email sent across disparate computing environments • Affordable
security beyond the office firewall. Taceo can ensure the proper
use and protection of EPHI no matter where it travels or where
it is stored. • Helps ensure authenticity of EPHI with digital
signatures. • Improve productivity by using the web to instantly
& securely share sensitive data. • Taceo offers an affordable
way to securely store sensitive information on site. • Prevent
unauthorized access to your documents. • Prevent unauthorized
distribution (no forwarding) • Prevent document editing (no cut,
copy, paste) • Set expiration time/date on email & documents. •
Ensures confidentiality and privacy. • Securely and permanently
delete files to Department of Defense standards (DOD 5220.22-M).
• Patients can download Taceo for free. • Meet regulatory
compliance requirements for privacy – HIPAA, PIPEDA, 21 CFR Part
11, Sarbanes-Oxley

REDUCING YOUR VULNERABILIIES

No security software in the world is 100% unbreakable, even the
most advanced digital encryption techniques can be broken or
circumvented by some person or organization with enough
motivation, time and money. Taceo does not totally negate the
risk of information leakage, for example a malicious individual
could take a digital photo of the screen or re-type the content
into another document and distribute it. However, Taceo
considerably reduces the risk that sensitive data can be
disseminated to unauthorized individuals or groups. Taceo
Safeguards remain with the data no matter where it travels or
where it is stored. Even if a CD or USB thumb-drive containing
protected data is stolen, the information contained therein will
remain encrypted and cannot be opened by unauthorized recipients.

THE ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL MIGRATION

Although it is often difficult to make the initial switch to
using digital patient records, the cost savings can be profound,
especially when amortized over a number of years. Benefits
include better accuracy in health records, less time spent
transcribing patient notes, filling prescriptions and receiving
quicker payment from insurance companies. For the most part many
healthcare practitioners have been slow to adopt digital medical
records, as of April 2005 only 16.4% of doctors in the United
States had made the switch. Reasons most often cited for the
slow adoption has been the costs in time and money. Fear of
complicated regulations also slow the transition; once records
are in the digital realm HIPAA standards must be strictly
adhered.

Although the task appears daunting, individual and smaller
medical practices can cost-effectively make the digital
transition with largely low cost, off-the-shelf components.

Taceo, from Essential Security Software should be an integral
part of any digital migration plan. Taceo can help your office
secure the storage and transmission of PHI. Because Taceo can be
used on almost any PC, it can be used to “bridge the gap” with
offices of other healthcare providers that have not yet made the
switch to digital records. Whether digital or analog, all
organizations that deal with patient medical information are
subject to HIPAA ordinances.

SUMMARY

Any healthcare provider or organization that works with patient
healthcare data is at risk for losing control of this
information. Unprotected electronic files containing sensitive
data can easily be accessed, altered, stolen and re-distributed
to unauthorized parties. Electronic protected health information
(EPHI) is subject to stringent HIPAA regulations; penalties for
violation of HIPAA rules can result in stiff fines and jail
time. Loss of EPHI can place healthcare organizations at great
financial and legal risk.

Taceo, from Essential Security Software can help small to
mid-size healthcare providers mitigate these risks. Taceo can
also help organizations meet HIPAA requirements for the secure
transmission, access and integrity of EPHI. Taceo is effective,
affordable and easy-to-use software that enables healthcare
providers to securely store, transmit and receive sensitive
data. Taceo can encrypt and help control access to almost any
file. Protected email and documents are safeguarded against
unauthorized forwarding, editing, coping, and printing or screen
capture. Taceo opens up a new realm of possibilities never
available before with such ease and affordability. Healthcare
providers can securely email medical information to their
patients. Pharmacies can use Taceo to send prescription order
information to doctors and customers alike.

Caregivers can quickly and securely collaborate with off-site
specialists thereby ensuring patients receive good treatment and
much more.

System Requirements • Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 or newer •
Microsoft .Net framework installed (if you don’t have this Taceo
will install it for you) • Internet access. • 15 MB of available
hard-drive space

Visit www.essentialsecurity.com

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The Art Of Career Planning

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:48:20 +0000

Do you plan your vacations? Do you plan your weekly activities? It would make perfect sense then, to create a plan for a successful career, right? The term “career planning” is foreign to most people, but it is a very important process by which we reach our goal of attaining the career we desire.
The definition of career is “a person’s progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking” (striving for a goal). What is the definition of planning? Planning is “a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance” or “a specific project or definite purpose” (such as preparing for the future). So, for our purposes, let’s say that career planning is “A goal that you desire to achieve in a selected field or occupation with a well thought out plan to get you there”.
Why is it important to decide on a career goal?
A career goal can:
Help you focus and make decisions on what it is you want to do for a living.
Function is a motivator and therefore helps you accomplish your goal.
Assist you in discovering hidden abilities or skills you might not have otherwise realized you possessed.
Keep you from wandering from job to job.
Once a specific job (such as a teacher) or area of expertise (such as business) has been chosen, steps need to be taken to reach that goal. A goal is “the result or achievement toward which effort is directed”. We would like to see our efforts result in having the career of our dreams.
Now,” why is career planning important?” We must consider that the world around us is constantly changing. In order to meet new challenges as time goes by, one aspect of career planning is to look to the future to see what additional training or knowledge is necessary to continue to excel in a specific field. Most people today are constantly learning throughout their careers.
Six steps are taken in the career planning process:
1. Self-Assessment – evaluate and judge your abilities
2. Career Exploration – researching different careers
3. Targeting – deciding on what goals to set
4. Career Preparation – workshops, seminars, internships
5. Marketing Yourself – a professional resume, dress, and attitude
6. Career Management – “rolling” with the trends in your particular field and realizing when our own needs or interests change
It is possible that these steps will be taken several times throughout a lifetime.
Something else to consider is to find a mentor in your field who is willing to assist you as you achieve your goals. They can be invaluable to you!
Goal setting is a learned skill and crucial to success in a career. Just as with any sport or hobby, “practice makes perfect”. Those who are successful in achieving their life’s dream (career) set both short-term and long-term goals. If it is helpful to you, write them down. The long-term goals will need to be re-evaluated from time to time as interests or circumstances vary.
Why is career planning an ‘art’? Because it is a skill that we obtain through study, practice and/or observation. Gather your information, set your goals and go after the career of your dreams!

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Advice on Picking and Developing a Career

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:46:44 +0000

Have you wondered why it seems some people are so successful in their career and others are not? This is true, since most people who are unsuccessful in their career give up their hopes and dreams. These are the people who settle for something lower than their own capabilities would qualify them for. They did not do the things which people who are successful in their career do, which is keeping their focus on their future path, and working towards it no matter what may happen.
So how did successful people attain their desired profession and achieve their satisfied career success? The first thing they did was to carry out a session of career goal setting. To perform career goal setting successfully, you must state your career desires explicitly and write them down. This provides you with a basic outline to follow when you set your ideal career goals. With your career goals written out, you know what your final destination looks like and can steadily work towards it.
Also, when carrying out career goal setting, be sure you do not assume that you can achieve your long-term career goals easily and successfully without effort. There is a risk in trying to reach the end without having some mid-term and short-term goals along the way. To prevent this potential mistake, always start from the end and work backwards, since this provides you with the elements for a successful career. Moreover, seeing it from the end to the beginning gives you an idea about how that the long term career goals is achievable.
Suppose you are attending university to become a doctor. Your parents persuaded you to have everything that was part of becoming a doctor written out in a detailed form. By asking you to perform the above steps, they were actually asking you to carry out career goal-setting on the way to becoming a doctor. This includes the short-term, mid-term and long-term career goals of yours. Because you knew everything that was covered in going to university, you were able to do better than the average student. You were aware of every element in pursuing that doctor career and this prepared you well for the challenges you have faced.
People delude themselves into thinking that having a successful career will come easily. However, when reality strikes, they become fearful and quit without achieving their goal. Being prepared mentally requires it of you to be disciplined and persistent in order to overcome fears of failure, and thus you can achieve your career goals. Always expect the best from yourself and do not settle for anything less than what you know you are capable of achieving.
Just about everyone wants to advance in his or her chosen occupation. No one wants to simply stay put. The nature of living makes people want to get somewhere else and grow. But few people, those not lacking a self-starter capacity, really know how to make their own advancement happen.
Career development is not very complex, which is not to say that it is an easy task to accomplish. On the contrary, it requires a tremendous amount of discipline and determination to be able to maximize the resources available to you, such as your time, money, and energy. However, once you have mastered the skill of using what you have to the fullest effect, you will be well on your way to personal growth and new career advancement.
Some things that many have found help them in their career prospecting are:
Reading extensively. In many fields, taking your time and reading is one of the best things you can do to educate yourself. An oft-quoted study shows that Americans on average read only one book each year after graduation. Obviously, in a rapidly changing world, one book per year is not nearly enough. If you expect to get anywhere in this competitive world, you will do your share of studying and researching, if only in the subject areas which will apply to your line of work.
A large number of self-development professionals say that anyone who aspires to be a leader in their industry must read for at least thirty minutes each day. After all, they say, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. By keeping your mind sharp and by staying abreast of the news and developments in your field, you will have a decided advantage over those who simply do not bother to take this kind of time.
Another tip is to provide what is required. Whether you work for a firm or bravely operate your own business, a fundamental principle is to give your clients or customers what they want. If you are an employee, giving the customers what they want is really giving your boss, who qualifies as your customer in this scenario, what he wants in terms of work productivity. If you operate a business, this principle requires no further explanation.
Always try to find out what it is that is expected of you, and what people want to receive from you as well. As a business owner, this will mean conducting some market research. As an employee, this will mean making a study of your own company and finding the area where your unique skills are most certain to have an effect.
Whenever the hard work to get ahead seems to be too much, remember that the temptation to quit will be strongest just before you succeed.

Freelance writer for over eleven years.

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Need a Career Coach? – 10 Ways a Career Coach Can Help You

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:42:59 +0000

The word coaching is synonymous with sports teams. A coach can help athletes to develop the mindset to achieve, to set and achieve goals that to many people seem insurmountable, but with focus and clarity, can be met or exceeded. They can help a sportsperson to reach their full potential by planning structured training programmes, providing feedback on performance, and helping them to become more effective.

However, coaching has become more prevalent in other areas. Life coaching has developed significantly over the last few years, with many coaches specialising in niche areas such as health, financial and career coaching to name a few.

To concentrate on the rising demand for employing a career coach, why should you choose a coach to help you to progress in your career?

A career coach will help you in many ways. Like in the description of a sports coach above, they will help you to develop and reach your potential, be successful and achieve results. A career coach will normally work with you on a one-to-one basis and will often offer group workshops, teleseminars and e-books to support you to progress in your career.

A career coach can help you in the following areas:

Career exploration and discovery

You may be unhappy or dissatisfied in your job and feel that there is something else out there, but are not sure what it is. A career coach can help you to discover what is important to you in your job and make sure that it uses your talents, skills, and strengths, and provides you with the reward you deserve.

Understand your strengths and weaknesses

A career coach will help you to develop an insight into your strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to understand yourself better and support any decisions you make in your career. It will highlight areas you may not have considered before and you can address any weaknesses that may be holding you back or use them to your advantage.

Develop your career vision and design your career

A career coach can help you to structure a plan to progress your career. By helping you to understand your skills and abilities, they can help you to plan your ideal job and how you are going to get there.

Develop confidence in your own ability

You may have a plan for your future, but you may be consciously or subconsciously holding yourself back. A career coach can help you to develop greater confidence in your ability as well as providing you with the support and motivation to help you to achieve your goal.

Provide job search support

A career coach can help you during all stages of your job search. From helping you to develop your CV, to finding the ideal job and then succeeding at the interview, a career coach will support you every step of the way.

Help you to get ready for promotion

You don’t need to want to change your career to benefit from employing a career coach. They can help you to get ready for promotion, plan for the next step in your career, and support you to develop your talents.

Support you in the workplace

If you are unhappy at work, there may be many reasons why this may be so. A career coach can also help you to deal with difficult situations or people and become more assertive. You can increase your profile at work, build better relationships and improve your own personal effectiveness.

Make sure that your goals are congruent with other parts of your life

A career does not exist on its own and is part of your overall life. It is important that a career coach makes sure that your career goals fit in well with other parts of your life. For example, if work/life balance is essential for you, they will ensure that you consider this when planning or progressing your career.

Provide you with greater self awareness

Some career coaches will use psychometric tests or other techniques that will help you to develop a greater self awareness of yourself. A greater self awareness will help you to understand yourself better, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.

Support you every step of the way

Like other coaches, career coaches will support you every step of the way.

Their role is to:

- Challenge you and ensure that you commit to making the changes you desire.

- Hold you accountable to the actions you want to take. You will need to report on your results, which means that as well as being accountable to yourself, you need to demonstrate what you have achieved to your coach.

- Question you and challenge your ideas and thoughts.

- Listen to you without any agenda for themselves, which gives you a chance to come up with your own solutions which are right for you.

- Celebrate your successes and recognise when you have overcome difficulties or challenges.

- Keep you motivated even when the going gets tough!

For more information about career coaching, go to http://www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/. You can sign up to receive the free e-book “7 steps to recession-proof your career” and find out more about one-to-one coaching, group workshops and e-books (http://www.lifecoachingebooks.co.uk) to help you to rediscover your career.
Karen Williams is a Personal Development Coach and runs her own coaching practice, Self Discovery Coaching. She has over ten years experience of working in Human Resources, training, coaching and management roles and is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
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