Health IT Consulting Company Educates Small Physician Practices on Coming Regulatory Changes

EMRSoap has created a publication entitled ‘Health IT Security and the Small Provider – A Primer for 2013'. The document focuses on helping small providers understand why Health IT security issues can no longer be overlooked.

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) December 31, 2012

EMRSoap, a Puget Sound Health IT consulting firm, is now distributing documentation that helps small physician practices understand the changing regulatory environment in 2013.

Mark Jagger, CEO of EMRSoap, said that ‘there's a serious education problem. Many small practices have not been completing Risk Assessments for years, because regulatory enforcement has been lax. That's changing. We're trying to do our part in helping people adjust.'

In a self-reported survey conducted by HIMSS, 35% of surveyed physician practices do not conduct annual Risk Assessments – which is the absolute minimum for health care providers under HIPAA, and is required by law.

Risk Assessments are critical to understanding what security threats face the practice's sensitive health information. By not understanding their risks, small practices are leaving themselves vulnerable to both regulatory action and sensitive data breaches – both of which can cost tens of thousands.
Numerous events in 2012 lead experts to conclude that the next two years will prove dangerous to the unsecure, non-compliant practice. These events include promises of increased audits from regulatory agencies, ramped up reporting requirements for incentive programs, and the first six figure fine for a non-compliant small providers in 2012.

In order to get smaller providers up to speed on the regulatory environment around them, EMRSoap has created a publication entitled ‘Health IT Security and the Small Provider – A Primer for 2013'. The document focuses on helping small providers understand why Health IT security issues can no longer be overlooked. It can be found at http://www.emrsoap.com/publications.

EMRSoap will also be distributing hardcopies of this report to small providers in surrounding communities.

EMRSOAP is a division of trusted IT Services provider CyberStreams Inc. Cyberstreams has been providing IT consulting to Small and Medium sized businesses in the Pacific Northwest since 1997. EMRSoap is a spinoff that was created to leverage CyberStreams' expertise of highly regulated institutions. This also enables them to offer better services to local physician practices.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/12/prweb10282800.htm