Improved Quality of Life - Technologies

Empower Med believes the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has improved the efficiency of health care administration while laying the foundation for the privacy, confidentiality and security of all electronic medical data. We are commited to safeguarding the privacy and security of our clients' information.

Effective April 2005, HIPAA now mandates security measures to (1) physically AND electronically secure electronic protected health information (PHI) against unauthorized retrieval, (2) reliably store the electronic data, and (3) provide for emergency access to the data. Empower Med already has systems in place to meet these stringent security requirements - all while significantly reducing the security burden on your office and staff.

HIPAA was designed with extensive input from the health industry regarding the importance of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards for exchange of electronic healthcare data. Empower Med will continuously monitor the ongoing developments of these and the rest of the HIPAA standards, in our ongoing effort to help keep all of our clients in compliance with the finalized HIPAA standards.

Under the new Security Rule, you'll be responsible for protecting your computer-stored patient data from both physical access (break-ins, disgruntled employees, etc.) and electronic access (firewalls, complete network and user security, etc.) This presents a great challenge for small and large practices alike, on top of the regular headaches of managing backups, software installs, and more. Then add backup and reliability issues, considering that some 40-50% of all in-office tape backups fail to restore properly.

We offer a full service data management solution that removes all of the above hassles and enables much easier HIPAA compliance for your office at the same time. We store all of your electronic data in a world-class datacenter facility that features 16 levels of security measures, including biometric access, bulletproof glass, 24-hour monitoring and patrolling, locked server cages, state-of-the-art firewall protection, and NSA-approved procedures and policies.

• Secure transfer: Empower Med uses powerful SSL 128-bit encryption to safeguard the electronic transfer of all data - the same level of security as bank and Federal transactions.
• Automatic logout: The Security Rule includes requirements that users be automatically logged out after a period of time, to prevent unauthorized access of patient records. This feature comes standard with Empower Med.
• User logging: Empower Med automatically tracks all users logging into and out of the system for reference by a system administrator.
• Audit trail: The system permanently tracks any changes made to PHI, so those changes can be reviewed at any time by a system administrator.
• User roles: The system restricts access to PHI based on administrative rights and user roles, so that the electronic information is revealed only to those whom you authorize.

We know you're concerned about impending HIPAA deadlines. It should be noted that any vendor, including Empower Med, alone cannot enable you to achieve HIPAA compliance. The steps and techniques necessary to fulfill HIPAA obligations typically, and in some cases mostly, involve changes in the policies and procedures of the healthcare Provider. Nonetheless, as your technology partner, Empower Med will play an active role in your practice's steps towards successfully achieving full compliance. To help you formulate a strategy to address the new regulations, we have compiled a simplified, easy-to-understand overview of HIPAA as well as a page of HIPAA Links.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was enacted as part of a broad Congressional attempt at incremental healthcare reform. Signed into law on August 21, 1996 by the Clinton administration, HIPAA is considered to be the most significant body of health-care legislation to be enacted since Medicare.

HIPAA is made up of several provisions designed to protect the healthcare consumer in a number of ways - many of which are still not in effect. At a high level, HIPAA legislation includes the following:

Title I: Insurance portability - helping workers and their families maintain insurance coverage when they change or lose a job.

Title II: Administrative simplification - providing legislation around privacy, security and electronic data.

Title III: Tax-related provisions - allowing employees to set up medical savings accounts.

Title IV: Enforcement of group health care requirements.

Title V: Revenue offsets - for company-based life insurance plans