Grad Students at Purdue University’s School of Technology will be working with Dan Hadaway of infotex and Dr. Melissa Dark on an independent study course focusing on the question: “What methods can be used to motivate small practitioners to comply with HIPAA prior to their 04/21/06 compliance deadline?”

Hospitals and other large healthcare providers must comply with HIPAA by 04/21/05. However, in order for them to comply, they must address Section 164.308(b)(1) which requires that all networks connecting to your network comply with HIPAA. In other words, small practices that connect to a hospital will need to comply with HIPAA by 04/21/05. Of course the seemingly simple solution is to just say you can’t connect unless you comply with HIPAA.  In other words, implement a denial of service attack . . . .

This doesn’t fly well with hospital administrators who are finally seeing the light at the end of the integration tunnel. The possibility that small practices could pull out of the already expensive conversion costs must be addressed in a proactive manner.

In a project sponsored by infotex, a select group of grad students at Purdue University’s School of Technology will be working on an independent study class to take on the challenge of finding methods that can be used to motivate small practitioners to comply with HIPAA prior to their 04/21/06 compliance deadline. Participating hospitals would be required to spend a few hours in meetings (at your hospital) and in teleconferences; and would need to provide feedback and input as the project progresses. Meanwhile, participating hospitals would receive a report at the end of the project that could include deliverables such as a campaign checklist, project management tools, etc. (As a participating hospital you would have a large say in what the deliverables end up being.)

If your hospital is interested in participating in this project, please contact Dan Hadaway at [email protected].