MTIndia Newsletter - Proactive provisions to protect PHI
From: AbeilleDeSucre (abeilledesucre_at_aol.com)
Date: 07/31/04
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Date: 31 Jul 2004 13:59:56 GMT
Subj: MTIndia Newsletter - Proactive provisions to protect PHI
Date: 07/31/2004 12:54:04 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: amit@mtindia.org
To: MTIndia@yahoogroups.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)
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MT India Newsletter
To subscribe, send an email to:
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31 July 2004
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Proactive provisions to protect PHI ...
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Dear Friends,
NASSCOM recently announced the findings of a special study it has conducted
on India's Information Security Environment. The report benchmarks Indian IT
services and ITES-BPO companies against their US and UK peers, with regards
to the deployment of best practices in the areas of data security,
confidentiality and privacy laws.
The study shows that overseas companies are quite comfortable with the
existing Information Security scenario in India and have rarely faced any
issues related to data security, data protection or confidentiality while
offshoring work to India.
The NASSCOM study has thrown up the following findings about the Information
Security orientation of the Indian IT services and ITES-BPO market. It
indicates that:
* Indian companies have robust security practices, comparable to those
followed by Western companies.
* Indian companies adhere to global standards such as the BS 7799, which
covers all areas of security.
* Companies that are compliant with the BS 7799 standard have established
Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) policy for ensuring
information security in the areas of usage policy, information
classification policy, mobile computing policy, risk management policy and
third party access policy.
* Indian vendors normally sign Service Level Agreements (SLAs) which have
very strict confidentiality and security clauses built into them at the
network and data levels. Such SLAs also cover all relevant laws that
customer companies want the offshore services provider to comply with and
the actions that can be taken in case of breaches.
* Spending on security ranges from five to 15 percent of the IT budget.
* India has a strong regulatory environment, covered by laws such as the IT
Act 2000, the Indian Copyright Act, the Indian Penal Code Act and the Indian
Contract Act, 1972, to safeguard the interests of companies offshoring work
to the UK and US.
However, the IT Act does not have any direct, proactive provisions to
protect data. Protection is through implication and therefore damages
recoverable can only be through a laborious process of "demonstrating and
proving" that there has been a breach.
Says cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, "Specific provisions provide 'incidental
' protection to data. There is no law governing misuse such as deletion,
leaking out information as well as threats to put out sensitive information
on the internet."
Also, the liability of any breach lies with the network service provider
(Section 79)-in a BPO this will mean the Company - and not the employee
whereas most data breaches are by 'rogue' employees.
The Government proposes amendments to a handful of legislations ranging from
the Information Technology Act 2000, the Indian Penal Code, the Indian
Contracts Act, Consumer Protection Act as well as the Specific Relief Act to
incorporate data privacy and security laws.
An expert group set up by the Department of Information Technology is
sifting through domestic laws with a view to fine-tuning them. The exercise
is aimed at enabling business process outsourcing and other IT enabled
services to handle work from the US and EU with competitive advantage.
See:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/792726.cms
Ciao!
Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@mtindia.org
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
------------------------
1) CBay Selected by University of Michigan Health System to Provide Medical
Transcription Services
CBay Systems, Ltd. has been awarded a multi-year contract to provide medical
transcription and information management services to University of Michigan
Health System. The scope of the contract includes support to University
Hospital and approximately 30 health centers and 120 outpatient clinics in
Michigan.
Physicians at University of Michigan Health System will dictate via the
telephone, digital voice recorder or PDA and transcripts will be delivered
seamlessly into the hospital's health information management system. CBay's
web-based solution is fully HIPAA compliant and provides accuracy and
turnaround schedules that match the best in the industry-all while offering
substantial savings without any capital investment.
CBay is the world's fourth largest provider of transcription services to the
healthcare industry and has U.S. based and offshore production facilities
employing more than 3,700 people serving over 800 clients.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-
27-2004/0002218713&EDATE=
2) MedQuist Announces Key Findings of Independent Review of Client Billing
The review, conducted for the Board of Directors by Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, identified a number of issues regarding the
company's billing practices. The review found that with respect to its
contracts that called for billing based on the "AAMT line," the company used
ratios and formulas to determine the number of "AAMT" transcription lines
for which clients were billed rather than counting the number of relevant
characters to determine a billable line as provided for in the contracts.
With respect to these contracts, the company's use of ratios and formulas as
a surrogate for counting was generally not disclosed to the clients. In
addition, a company employee explained inaccurately to KPMG LLP (KPMG), the
company's outside auditors, the computation of AAMT lines on one of the
company's major transcription platforms. The use of ratios and formulas
caused some clients to be billed more and some to be billed less than if the
counting method provided for in the contracts had been used. In addition,
the ratios and formulas for certain client accounts were changed by the
company, generally without disclosure to clients, in order to affect profit
margins. Due to the ambiguities inherent in the AAMT line definition and the
limited extent of the information available to the company for earlier
periods, the company is unable at this time to determine with any reasonable
certainty the aggregate amount of overbilling.
MedQuist has also been informed by the staff of the Securities and Exchange
Commission that the SEC has opened a formal investigation of the company.
The company will continue its efforts to cooperate with the SEC, as it has
since it voluntarily advised the SEC of the company's review of its billing
methods.
The Board also took disciplinary action against five MedQuist employees.
Said Gregory Sebasky, MedQuist's President: "We believe that we have done
what is necessary and appropriate in light of the results of the review. We
will continue to build a strong and motivated organization and continue
MedQuist's commitment to a high standard of ethics and customer
satisfaction." The Board also announced that it has accepted the
resignations of its Chief Financial Officer, Brian Kearns, and its Chief
Legal Officer, John Suender.
http://www.mtchat.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB10&Number=2345
9&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=6
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,123640,00.html
3) Cogient, AssistMed sign agreement
AssistMed Inc., a provider of Web-based transcription and health data
integration products, and Cogient Corp., a medical practice management and
Electronic Medical Record application service provider, have signed an
agreement covering the United States and Canada, with the aim of capturing
significant market share driven by government initiatives to have widespread
EMR adoption.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040730.gtcogi0730/BNS
tory/Technology/
4) Physicians Resist Electronic Order Entry
Physicians' resistance to computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems
is impeding their adoption more than the cost of such systems, according to
a new study by the Harvard Medical School.
Researchers conducted extended interviews with 52 senior managers at 26
hospitals and identified physician resistance, high cost of systems and
immature products as the top three obstacles to implementing CPOE.
Fewer than 15 percent of all U.S. hospitals are estimated to use CPOE, in
which physicians enter orders for medications, tests and other services
electronically.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1622393,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
5) Cebu urged to lower cost of MT training
There is a need for Cebu to bring down the cost of training for medical
transcription (MT) so it can produce enough manpower for Cebu's next big
potential business. According to Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) president Rene
Almendras, medical transcription is Cebu's next real opportunity after the
flourishing of call centers in the area. During the annual general
membership meeting of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the City
Sports Club Cebu last week, he said the cost of training at the only MT
school in Cebu is very high because of the law of supply and demand.
But International School for Medical Transcription (ISMT) president Maria
Lourdes Go denied the school's training was expensive. Almendras said MT
investors have expressed interest in locating in Cebu, but the availability
of manpower is hindering them from doing so.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2004/07/21/bus/cebu.urged.to.lower.co
st.of.mt.training..html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:
All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.
Thank you for your interest in MT India!
The MTIndia Team
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