RE: HIPAA certs

["Taylor, Bud" <BTaylor () stginc com>]

The answer is that until it gets to court no one knows.  HIPAA represents
1000's of pages of requirements that are ambiguous at best and contradictory
at worst.  HIPAA's useful function is the standardization of procedure codes
saving the health care industry and in turn consumers untold sums.  For
implementing HIPAA security compliance, best bet is to secure the
infrastructure to DoD standards and industry best practices. Include in your
contract that you will not represent your clients in court as if you end up
in front of a judge it's anyone's best guess as to what may happen.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Hastain [mailto:hastain () sbcglobal net]
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 1:29 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: HIPAA certs


hey all,

I have a few clients who are doctors running small practices.  They have
small LAN's and DSL connectinos behind a simple NAT router/firewall in one
case and persoanl FW's in the other (unfortunatly not my decision in either
case).

Each has approached me about the HIPAA certs in the last week.  I have read
through what seams reams of pages on it b ut have been unable to deduce
anything other than general good security practices.  Strong passwords,
offsite encrypted backups, real firewalls, etc and so on.

Can anyone shed some light onto this subject or point me to a document with
only the IT requirements prefereably boiled down to something simple?

And also has anyone had any experience yet with the HIPAA investigators or
quality control people checking on a site?  any ideas what they are looking
for?

I understand it is a 20k dollar fine for each infraction so I would hate for
it to be on my watch.

tia

Jason Hastain
Hastain Consulting