E-learning: Employing Learning Management System to Deliver Online Learning

In the present times, e-learning is rapidly gaining importance due to many advantages that it offers, compared to conventional education. The widespread use of internet has made it easy for the instructors to provide online education to students, living far and wide. E-learning provides students the much needed flexibility to access and follow courses without hurting their daily routine. Any one who is working or is not able to enroll in the training institute due to limitation of time and distance, is immensely benefited by online learning.

Learning Management System

Keeping in the mind the vast business potential that e-learning offers to the course providers and the rich benefits, which the trainees or students can reap, it is necessary to create a platform that enables smooth flow of bidirectional flow information between trainers and trainees. This is where Learning Management System or LMS plays a crucial role. It is basically a collection of software tools that are programmed to facilitate wide range of online teaching and learning activities.

Salient Features of LMS

The Learning Management System should facilitate the course trainers to easily manage the content through proper storage, use and reuse, mechanism. To develop an effective online content management system it is necessary to host an LMS, which has following salient features:

• Able to deliver online courses to targeted audience.

• Manage online class transactions.

• Track and manage online learning progress of students.

• Able to access learning outcomes.

• Report completion of learning tasks.

• Manage student records.

• Enable bi-directional flow of information between course providers and students, through an automated feedback system and helpdesk.

• It should be SCORM compliant as this feature allows sharing of the content from different courses providers on the same LMS.

The Learning Management System provides e-learning solutions to educational institutes and online course instructors to provide people, high quality online education. The rapid advances in telecommunication technology has also thrown up new challenges for LMS and it necessary to incorporate new features in it, to provide even better online learning services through seamless and interactive connectivity between the educators and students, on a global scale.

A good Learning Management System is necessary to deliver online education.

Jason Gaya

Read more on e-learning solutions, at www.empowerbpo.com

HIPAA 5010- Graduating From HIPAA 4010 to Provide Better Health Insurance Service

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, addresses healthcare issues like, patient health information protection, insurance portability and simplification of health insurance administration. The voluminous health insurance data involved, makes the insurance administration process, cumbersome. The covered entities like physicians, hospitals, clinics, clearing houses, plan providers and their business associates need seamless connectivity, to synchronize their transactions in smooth manner. This will reduce processing time, cut operating cost and increase the overall productivity of the system. As a result the patients can enjoy better, safer and cheaper health insurance service.

The complete conversion of the paper records into electronic format is a time consuming task. The real challenge lies in creating seamless connectivity between different health services so that the patient health information is used safely to settle insurance claims, remittances and eligibility issues in time bound manner and to complete satisfaction of the customers.

This is where HIPAA 5010 will take over from HIPAA 4010. HIPAA 5010 overcomes the shortcomings of HIPAA 4010 by adopting a well a defined policy which supports structural and technical changes to provide a consistent and uniform content that creates a common platform for different health service providers. As a result covered entities like physicians, hospitals, payers, clearinghouses, dentists and pharmacies can easily share and process the patient health information in minimal time and cost.

HIPAA 5010 addresses drawbacks in HIPAA 4010, by providing solutions to the critical health care issues like claims attachment, quality and cost of treatment, patient health records and safety, pay for performance and pay consumerism. The ICD-10 diagnostics and procedural codes, which are missing in HIPAA 4010, make HIPPA 5010 highly accurate and flexible for the payers to capture more and better information about patients. This will enhance functional areas like:

• Administration of Claims

• Management of contract with Health service provider

• Medical Management that includes referral and pre-authorization, disease and case management.

• Assessment of Eligibility and Enrolment

• Customer service in handling the appeals and providing claim related support.

In the end, HIPAA 5010 with 1000 plus changes, from its predecessor, will greatly help increase interoperability and portability between the different health providers and their business associates. This will translate into huge savings in operational costs of the national healthcare system and enable the patients to receive better health insurance services at reduced prices, compared to what is available to them, today.

HIPAA 5010 will integrate healthcare insurance industry.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA at, www.empowerbpo.com

HIPAA Law-Selecting the Right User Authentication System

The main objective of the HIPAA law is to streamline health insurance system and provide continuous coverage to the people who change or loose their jobs. To do this effectively, special emphasis is laid on complete conversion of patient health records from paper to electronic format. This will make it convenient for the covered health providers and their business associates, to safely manage the voluminous patient health information in a cost-effective manner.

The HIPAA law advocates a very strong security policy, which guarantees the protection of the confidential health information from unauthorized access on the net. Password enabled access, is the most common type of the security system. But such a system is not reliable as the passwords can be easily hacked. Also when there are many passwords to remember, it becomes very cumbersome for the user to remember all of them. The patient or user writes them down on paper and this is an unsafe practice because if it falls in wrong hands it can result in financial losses for patient and the health service provider.

The smart card system provides a better option as it works on combination of the security card and a pin number. But there is a loophole in it. Incase of loss of smart card or if the pin number is cracked open by hacker, the secrecy of patient health information can be severely compromised. Further Smart card based authentication systems are costly and hence it becomes expensive for the small health providers to install.

A strong user authentication, which provides exceptionally strong defense against unauthorized access or intrusion, should be incorporated into the computer networks. Biometric authentication offers the best available solution to health service providers, as it integrates unique characteristics of the patient or the user, like fingerprints, iris scan, voice prints, signatures and keystrokes dynamics with a user password to create a highly secure access system. As this technology uses costly equipments, the health providers need to spend more, compared to other available options.

Under HIPAA law, all the covered entities like hospitals, clinics, clearing houses and other health service providers are responsible and accountable for the safety of the patient health information. Hence it is necessary, to put in place an impenetrable security wall, in form of reliable user authentication, which successfully neutralizes any intrusion. This protects the health organization from non compliance of HIPAA law due to poor network security.

User authentication fortifies the computer network against unauthorized access.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA at, www.empowerbpo.com

HIPAA Law: Ensuring Secure Transmission of Patient Health Information Through Fax

Fax machine is a great asset, which organizations count on, to quickly send and receive information. It plays a significant role in managing well, the communication needs of the office. But with arrival of HIPAA law, it is mandatory for the covered entities and their business associates to install HIPAA complaint faxing systems so that protected health information of patients is not leaked out or exposed to unauthorized people during the transmission process.

As non-compliance of HIPAA law can invite penalties and criminal prosecution, it necessary to put in place few safeguards that make the daily use of the fax machine, safe and secure.

• Fax systems, which support email encryption, should be installed. The protected health information system should be encrypted before it is faxed. This will protect the information from unauthorized access, because only receiver has the key to decrypt the message back into original form.

• The fax machine should be configured in such a way that no copy of received fax is saved.

• The Fax machine should have inbuilt copying system, which can print as many as copies needed. This eliminates the need of external document copier like, Photostat machine and prevents exposure of the confidential patient health information to unauthorized persons.

• The fax machine should be placed in a secure place and accessed by only authorized personnel. On receipt of the fax, the message should be delivered straightaway to the intended recipient.

• The fax numbers which are used regularly should be properly saved, and the speed dialing option should be used to prevent misdialing of the numbers.

• There should be a sound policy in place, which manages efficiently the storage, duplication and disposal of the faxed protected health information, as per HIPAA law. The policy should also be able to address effectively, the wrong delivery of the PHI.

• Before faxing to a new recipient, the number should be checked by sending a test message. This will ensure dispatch of crucial PHI to the intended receiver only.

Fax machine is integral part of the office communication system. Covered entities like clinics, hospitals, clearing houses, insurance companies and other health provider depend on it for their daily communication needs. With the advent of HIPAA law, the fax machine should be installed and used in a very secure manner.

HIPAA compliant fax machine should be used and have special encryption features, which allows the sender to encrypt the protected health information and send it as an email through the net. The PHI is encrypted into sequence of codes and transmitted to the fax machine of receiver also connected to the internet. The receiver has a key which decodes the encrypted email and prints back the information in the original form. Thus the message is faxed in a safe and secure manner over the net. These precautions help the health organizations to store and exchange the protected health information of the patient as per HIPAA law.

HIPAA compliant Fax helps in quick and safe transfer of patient health information.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA, at www.empowerbpo.com

Twitter - Tweeting the HIPAA Way

The increased use of the social media, especially Twitter, is a cause for concern for many people, keeping in the mind, the strict HIPAA compliance norms pertaining to patient health information. Twitter, is turning out to be the most favored communication tool, for healthcare professionals who want to maintain, quick and easy, connectivity with their patients.The increased use of social media in healthcare settings points towards the strategy of the healthcare organizations to advertise their services especially through Twitter, because of the vast reach, which it provides. To cut down advertisement costs in face of increased competition and economic downturn, healthcare professionals and organizations find Twitter, a cheap and effective advertising media.

Some surgeons tweet from operating rooms to the relatives of patient and keep them updated on the condition of the patient. For a marketing perspective, this might be a good way to woo more patients to the hospital by advertising about service, which reflects the customer-centric policy of the organization.

But Twitter in healthcare settings, is fraught with dangers. The HIPAA norms make it mandatory for all the covered entities like hospitals, health insurance providers, billing services and other health providers along with their business associates to ensure complete protection of patient health information, which they store, process and exchange between themselves. Irresponsible use of Twitter might result is leakage of sensitive health information of the patient and invite heavy fines and criminal convictions, which can ruin careers of the medical personnel, and tarnish image and business prospects of the health care organizations.

Use of Twitter from the operating room should be discouraged as it might affect the electronic signals of the machines installed in the room. Further a wrong or premature information tweeted from the room can damage the reputation of the organization. Any tweet, which leaks the identity of the patient or information, will surely invite legal troubles for the personnel and the organization.

It is necessary regulate the use of Twitter through a well managed healthcare social media policy. Vigilance should be maintained on what is being tweeted into the social media from the organization and all the medical personnel should be made aware of the regulations pertaining to the right use of Twitter. The tweeting rights should be given too authorized and reliable personnel. They should be made aware of the legal and financial implications of any lapse, which results in unauthorized display of confidential patient health information, knowingly or unknowingly.

Increased awareness, collective and individual accountability, sound social media management policy and sharp vigilance can make it easy for the healthcare organizations to use Twitter safely without leaking patient health information as per HIPAA laws.

Twitter and HIPAA can can co-exist with each other.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA, at www.empowerbpo.com

Employing E-learning to Achieve HIPAA Compliance

The busy schedule at the workplace makes it difficult for the healthcare professionals to attend training programs that educate about various HIPAA policies and standards. Many covered entities like the hospitals, multi-location clinics, health insurance companies and other health service providers are strictly bound by the HIPAA compliance norms and it is of highest priority for them to train their workforce in HIPAA privacy and security standards. This responsibility also falls on the business associates like transcription companies who provide support services to covered entities.

To educate the employees about patient privacy regulations, the organization needs to arrange for a training location, instructor and course material, which are costly. Further this type of arrangement makes it difficult for the employees to schedule their training program, without compromising their daily workplace routine. As a result the organization is likely to suffer production losses due to loss in man hours.

HIPAA online training courses offer a great opportunity to health organizations to train their staff in HIPAA compliance. The e-learning courses provide great flexibility healthcare workers to schedule their online education as per their convenience, without hurting their daily workplace routine. This means that the health service provider can maintain the desired productivity and at same time achieve complete HIPAA compliance.

Any HIPAA violation which is committed, knowingly or unknowingly, by employee or employees and leaks confidential patient health information, attracts severe penalties and convictions from regulatory authorities. To prevent such situation, the healthcare service provider should train the staff members in the HIPAA privacy and security standards.

The online learning courses run on Learning Management System and are user friendly. The employees can easily follow the course as per their convenience and stay updated on their progress, through a click of button. On successful completion of the course the candidates are immediately awarded their certificates.

HIPAA compliance online training courses train the employees of the covered entities and business associates so that safe management of confidential patient health information becomes the intrinsic part of their daily workplace schedule.

HIPAA online learning helps healthcare providers to train their employees easily.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA compliance at, www.empowerbpo.com

Balancing Social Media with HIPAA

Social media is completely changing the way people communicate with each. The online networking platform that social media provides has made it quite easy for the people to converse, exchange ideas, share opinions and distribute information, to shape mass opinion about an individual, product, policy, healthcare, education, etc. The list runs long.

An organized and credible healthcare system is crucial for well being of the human society. Health insurance also falls under purview of healthcare system and patient health information is of great significance. Insecure and a compromised patient health information system can have severe implications on the health and financial condition of the patients. HIPAA plays a pivotal role by enforcing strict regulations, which provide complete protection to confidential patient health information. The covered entities like the hospitals, clinics, billing and insurance companies and their workforce are governed by HIPPA compliance laws. Any lapse on their part can invite strict penalties and convictions.

Doctors, nurses, medics, paramedics, surgeons, etc are nowadays using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc, to communicate with each other. The patients also use social media to search for the right physicians or surgeons who can address their specific healthcare needs. This is the positive aspect of the social media in the healthcare settings. Also increased accessibility gives the patients the opportunity to share and improve their knowledge about a disease and treatment. The use of social media, word-of-mouth testimonial benefits the patients by providing them reliable information, which they can count on to conclude successfully, their pending health issues.

But there are also some threats, which social media poses to the privacy of patients. Lack of proper social media usage policies for healthcare workers and the human lapses can seriously put the integrity and confidentiality of the patient health information at risk. The intentional or unintentional display of the patient health information will surely invite strict penalties and convictions as per HIPAA regulations.

Instead of creating friction or conflict between HIPAA with social media through irresponsible use, the health care organizations should administer a sound social media management policy, which ensures that no leakages occur and what ever goes on the net is not detrimental to healthcare rights of the patient. If some how the information does manage to slip through, strict vigilance should ensure timely removal of the content from the net. The medical staff should be trained to handle social media in such a manner that both, organization and patients, are benefited through its constructive use.

Instead of opposing each other, the social media and HIPAA must be harmonized in such a manner so that the vast reach, which social media provides, is used effectively to address the healthcare issues, without compromising the individual or collective healthcare privacy rights.

Social media and HIPAA can go hands-in-hands to provide great benefits to healthcare system.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA at www.empowerbpo.com