HIPAA Area Coordinator and HQ Team

Conference Call

September 12, 2001

Areas on the Call: Aberdeen, Albuquerque, Billings, California, Nashville, Phoenix, and Tucson.  Portland was represented by California.

HQ Staff on the Call:  Bob Harry, Dick Church, Russ Pittman, Brenda Jeanotte, Bill Tibbitts, Lance Hodahkwen, Dan Aiken and Frank Martin  

Rick Weller of the Albuquerque Area chaired the call.

The call began with Ray Darnell describing his experience with a WEB based HIPAA training program.  He and several of his staff including some trainers from a program he contracts with took the WEB based training.  They all took several sessions of training including the test on the materials reviewed.  The sessions took from 1 to 1.5 hours to take and a certificate was provided to those that scored 80% or higher on the test.  The company providing the training keeps records of all persons taking and passing the training.  These records can be used to verify that training was successfully taken.  All of the “testers” felt the training was good and appropriate for Indian healthcare facilities.  Bob Harry asked if the training could be field-tested at an ambulatory care facility and a hospital.  Ray said they planned a test at a hospital in the Area.  He reported that the original test material was free but they would be charged by person taking the training, for the on-site training.  If successful in field-testing, Bob felt we could recommend its use across the Indian health care system.  He also asked Frank Martin to contact the Office of Civil Rights to determine if this training was on their approved list and Dick Church asked that Frank check with Beverly Compton in IHS training to determine the best way to include such training in the IHS training library.  .  

Ray Darnell also reported that he had a HIPAA training video and a self-assessment planning guide that he found useful.  He said that he would provide information on these two items via e-mail to all coordinators. 

Dan Aiken described the way a HIPAA “chat room” off of the WEB site would work and also how the group could use an IHS HIPAA List Server to exchange information, including documents.  It was decides that the “chat room” would be too complicated for general use and therefore not the desired way to exchange information between the HIPAA group.  Dan said he would make arrangements to set up a HIPAA List Server for use by Area and HQ HIPAA representatives.  Dan then reported that he had updated the Security Check list on the WEB site.  The previous one had been developed on a draft HIPAA Standard and some of the section references were incorrect.  He said that he had also noted the change in RED on the WEB site.  He recommended that everyone use the new checklist.  Dan said that he had recently added new FAQs to the site and more were to come.  Bob Harry told the group the positive attention the IHS HIPAA WEB site was receiving from outside sources and thanked Dan for all of his hard work on the site. 

Steve Lopez reported that at a recent meeting of Medical Records a draft Privacy Notice was developed that was in compliance with HIPAA Privacy Standards.  The notice is to be reviewed by a Privacy Workgroup that includes legal staff.  Steve said Medical Records personnel would be developing a HIPAA Gap analysis that compares HIPAA Standards to Privacy Act requirements as well as consents and authorization forms that are HIPAA compliant. 

Rick Weller asked the group what they felt the frequency of HIPAA Conference Calls should be.  The group went for monthly. 

Russ Pittman, Director, ITSC, reported that the forms 270 (eligibility) and 271 (response) were now HIPAA compliant.  He said the 837 (claim submission) and 835 (Payment/Advice) are being developed in HIPAA compliant language and will be ready well before October 2002.  He said that ITSC is considering converting the 820 (Premium Payment) and other forms the IHS may use to be HIPAA compliant.  He said that if there was a lag they could use clover leaf (an interchange engine) to enable IHS to submit HIPAA compliant forms.  As for codes they are being worked on and with the exception of dental codes all are on schedule.  The dental codes are behind and may require a contract to be let to have them be done in time. 

Bob Harry reported that he had secured some seed money to be used for HIPAA training.  He said he would use some of these funds to support testing WEB based training in Billings, California and Tucson Area.  He felt this would give a good comparison of programs using this form of training.  Bob said he would contact the Areas to discuss the amount of funds needed and method of funds transfer. 

The group asked if Personnel was working on the needed HIPAA actions that were required of personnel.  It was felt that we need to assure that Personnel is aware of their HIPAA requirements and are taking needed actions.

The next HIPAA conference call is scheduled for October 17, 2001 at 2 PM ET.  Please submit agenda items to Frank, Nick or Bob.