The COVID-19 Emergency has placed unprecedented demands on healthcare providers to provide services but places severe limits on the ability to safely see patients in-person, and business-grade teleconferencing technologies have stepped in to fill the gap in Telemedicine services.

HHS has recognized that such services, even while not necessarily meeting the letter of HIPAA regulations, can be used in a secure and reasonable way during the emergency, and has provided guidance to that effect.

Commonly-used applications like FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom, that are not public-facing in their operation, may be used, but public-facing apps such as FaceTime Live or a chat room in Slack are not appropriate. This session will explain the difference between public- and non-public-facing services, what should be done in using the permitted services, and what must be done once the emergency is over and the relaxation of enforcement ends.

Areas Covered in the Session:-

• Emergency needs in communications during the Emergency
• Types of Telemedicine and Teleconferencing technology, and HIPAA requirements
• Explaining the Relaxation of Enforcement of some HIPAA rules to facilitate communication
• What are permitted communications with Family and Friends of patients
• Communications that are necessary for First Response circumstances
• Disclosures to Disaster Recovery agencies
• Disclosures to Prevent a Serious and Imminent Threat

Why you should Attend:-

Social distancing to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is effective, but patient care has typically required a face-to-face encounter, which can cause the spread of the virus as infected individuals travel to and from appointments. It is essential to be able to provide telemedicine services in order to reach most individuals without risking more harm.

HIPAA regulations put controls on the appropriate technologies to use for communications and can require that a Business Associate relationship be established when using any services that involve any persistence of custody of Protected Health Information. Violations of HIPAA rules can lead to penalties in the millions of dollars.

HHS has announced the relaxation of enforcement pertaining to the use of teleconferencing technologies to provide remote medical services, allowing the use of such services to expand quickly, but limits on "public-facing" conferencing technologies remain.

Providers need to adopt the necessary technologies without fear of HIPAA violation enforcement actions during the COVID-19 Emergency and must understand the limits of what is permitted in order to best serve patients and their families.

HHS has also issued guidance to remind healthcare providers of the allowances for communications with family and friends, with disaster relief organizations, and to prevent a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of individuals or the public.

This session will discuss the issues surrounding the use of various communication technologies under HIPAA controls, and the recent guidance and declarations from HHS about HIPAA and the response to COVID-19.

Who Will Benefit:-

• Compliance Director
• CEO
• CFO
• Privacy Officer
• Security Officer
• Information Systems Manager
• HIPAA Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Health Information Manager
• Healthcare Counsel/lawyer
• Office Manager