Where 1/3 of Every Healthcare Dollar is Going
Where 1/2 of your healthcare dollar is being spent
When you discuss compliance in healthcare, it is essential that you address cost. According to the Institute of Medicine, “HIPAA compliance cost 33 cents of every health care dollar that was spent between 1996 and 2002.”
HIPAA, or the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes.
The Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information, and all organizations are expected to be held accountable by healthcare compliance associations.
Gartner identified “security for privacy compliance as one of the top 10 issues within healthcare, and an area that is misunderstood and the cause of significant spending by healthcare.”
But healthcare compliance does not have to be such a burdensome financial weight to bear. Many healthcare organizations are now seeking expert consulting firms to assist them with reigning in HIPAA related spending, and a heavy emphasis has been placed on new and innovative IT Solutions that are lowering the cost of compliance. In fact, according to Net IQ “70% of healthcare organizations with annual budgets greater than US$100 million are using HIPAA compliance claims and remittance advice, and more than half of these organizations seek outside help.”
The bottom line to reigning in healthcare costs is often calling in experts in the respective area to bring alignment to healthcare compliance and financial goals of an organization. As healthcare, and already extensively regulated industry, becomes even more regulated, and as the number of healthcare services purchased through government continues to grow (currently 53% of services are purchased through the government and this rate is expected to grow by 15% per year for the next 5 years) it will become increasingly important for healthcare organizations to look to outside help to remain fiscally strong.
