Mobile, Document Management Top List Of 2014 Concerns
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
eFax released the results of its inaugural healthcare IT survey which found ACA-driven compliance, document management, and mobile are top priorities for 2014
According to a press release issued by Marketwired, “Changes brought on by legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, including the new healthcare exchanges, often means a sudden influx of added paperwork for healthcare organizations. HIPAA non-compliance outranks document management and information security as the top concern.”
This according to the 2014 Healthcare IT Pulse Survey conducted and released by eFax Corporate, an online fax service. According to the survey’s findings, “Fifty-four percent of organizations surveyed cited HIPAA compliance as their top concern, even more important than document management, organization and record keeping.” Additionally, “Forty-two percent of respondents said online fax is the most effective technology solution for helping with HIPAA compliance security, and 37 percent see online fax as the most undervalued technology with respect to security and business needs.”
"With new legislation in place, penalties are increasing for HIPAA noncompliance, and enforcement will be more aggressive than in the past," said Ross Leo, HIPAA compliance specialist and instructor at Training-HIPAA, in the news release. "Regardless of cause, the high cost of violations will be a painful reality for healthcare concerns of all sizes, and even higher for avoidable violations. With an increasingly mobile workforce relying on tablets and mobile devices to stay connected, document management and compliance will be top priorities in 2014. Ensuring the security of sensitive information handled through these devices will be among the highest priorities."
HealthcareITSecurity called the results “surprising,” writing, “The cost of HIPAA violations (37.1 percent) … outranked exposing sensitive information (17.5 percent) as the top fear regarding sensitive data. Off-site back up and IT disaster recovery were seen as the most valuable technology for HIPAA compliance, according to 48.5 percent of respondents. Use of a private cloud (46.5 percent) and audit report and tracking logs (44.4 percent) were also popular.”
HealthcareITSecurity continues, writing, “Company-issued tablets were used by 46 percent of respondents, and an additional 14 percent plan to introduce tablets to their workers in 2014. Electronic health record (EHR) adoption, however, was the top priority of 2014 with 31.1 percent of the vote. Other technologies to be used included mobile solutions (26.7 percent), cloud-based applications (24.4 percent), and data analytics (17.8 percent).”
The press release quotes Rick Stevens, director of enterprise marketing for eFax, as summarizing the report by saying, "The Affordable Care Act is forcing healthcare providers to re-examine all of their processes for sensitive-document management, storage and transfer. This survey reveals that the healthcare industry continues to place its trust in hosted fax services."
More of Stevens’ thoughts on the survey can be heard in the following podcast interview.
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