According to the news source, HIPAA's inception in 1996 was met with some trepidation across the industry. However, Lee Hamm, professor of medicine and executive vice dean at Tulane University School of Medicine, explained many organizations were already working to implement such protections at the time. However, many administrative challenges emerged.
"[HIPAA] added a lot of administrative burden and … it introduced a few things to make certain that people didn't inadvertently do something they shouldn't do," Hamm told the news source.
Part of this burden involves going through extensive processes to ensure data only goes to the right people. When it comes to sharing information between physicians, this is creating significant delays in patient care, the report said.
Healthcare organizations can focus more on their HIPAA processes and administrative policies if they are able to spend fewer resources worrying about the IT side of the equation. Outsourcing to a HIPAA compliant hosting provider can meet this need.
