(Asheville, NC): Employers
who sponsor health plans will soon be required to have a program to
safeguard health information. The final privacy rule issued by the
U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services under the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) requires health plans and
other covered entities to reasonably protect individually identifiable
health information, including oral information, from use or disclosure
that is in violation of the rule.
At the next regular meeting of
the Western North Carolina Human Resources Association, held at
12 noon on Wednesday, Nov. 13, Penny Wofford of the Edwards
Ballard law firm will provide a brief overview of:
· Requirements
of the HIPAA privacy regulations
· Implementing the new privacy requirements in
everyday employer situations.
· Developing a
HIPAA compliant privacy program, including:
· Analyzing
the flow of protected health information
· Drafting privacy policies, procedures and
forms
· Preparing a privacy training plan
· Modifying
business associate contracts
The meeting will be held at Best Western-West, 275
Smokey Park Hwy, Asheville. Reservations are required by 5pm
Friday, Nov. 8 and can be made by contacting Deborah Stewart at
Charter Communications, 828/209-2206 or dstewart@chartercom.com. The
cost to attend is $16 for members and students, $20 for nonmembers,
and includes lunch.
The program is open to members,
students and anyone interested in learning more about human resource
and management-related issues
The
Western North Carolina Human Resources Association is a certified
chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and is
comprised of human resource and other professionals from various area
businesses and industries. The purpose of the association is to
develop the personnel function in each participating company by close
contact and cooperation with others in the same field, to facilitate
the dissemination of information of value to human resource
professionals individually and collectively, and to promote positive
human relations principles.
