God forbid, but if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, do you have a trusted lieutenant who can keep your company on track?

To help you answer this question, think about the following comments:

• Choosing a successor is one of the most important decisions that a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and board can make. Bank of America was widely criticized when CEO Ken Lewis resigned with no clear succession plan in place. Several months after he announced that he was stepping down, no successor had been identified to replace him.
• Succession planning is not an academic exercise. It is not simply a question of finding the right person. It is an activity that is central to the health of the company.
• If companies do not have a good succession plan in place, at all levels of the company, but especially for the top job, they are doing a disservice to their stakeholders.
• If companies do not have a succession plan, to some extent, they are being negligent. It is like parents who die without leaving a will. You need to be able to pass along the knowledge and intentions that are meant to guide the company after you are gone.
• Also, your employees, customers and shareholders also need to be reassured that the company is in good hands no matter who holds the title of CEO. They need to know that there is continuity and certain bedrock principles guiding the company into the future.
• When a CEO leaves without establishing a successor, he is casting doubt on the future health of the company.
• Succession planning is not a one-time decision; it is a long-term ongoing process. Every company needs to be identifying potential successors - at all levels of the organization - and grooming them for future responsibilities.

You may see different versions of this question in your life as:

Research shows that well over 50% of companies promote their CEOs from within. Such companies understand a central tenet of business-that a well-crafted succession plan vastly minimizes disruption when the CEO leaves, expected or not. (Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric) Build leadership capacity incrementally. Upgrade corporate training so that it becomes an industry-wide credential. (Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way)

Do you truthfully answer this Yes or No?

Why?

Why Not?

How can the notes you just made help in your life, job and business? What one issue from your thoughts you noted when truthfully answering this question, will you start improving, TODAY?

Because risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things like bounced checks, losing your best customers or best people when you are blindsided. You need to create peripheral vision in your business so you are not blindsided.

You need a perspective of life under the microscope and to have lived to tell the tale. Insights give a common sense approach to what people make complex, as companies grow.

God forbid, but if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, do you have a trusted lieutenant who can keep your company on track?

To help you answer this question, think about the following comments:

• Choosing a successor is one of the most important decisions that a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and board can make. Bank of America was widely criticized when CEO Ken Lewis resigned with no clear succession plan in place. Several months after he announced that he was stepping down, no successor had been identified to replace him.
• Succession planning is not an academic exercise. It is not simply a question of finding the right person. It is an activity that is central to the health of the company.
• If companies do not have a good succession plan in place, at all levels of the company, but especially for the top job, they are doing a disservice to their stakeholders.
• If companies do not have a succession plan, to some extent, they are being negligent. It is like parents who die without leaving a will. You need to be able to pass along the knowledge and intentions that are meant to guide the company after you are gone.
• Also, your employees, customers and shareholders also need to be reassured that the company is in good hands no matter who holds the title of CEO. They need to know that there is continuity and certain bedrock principles guiding the company into the future.
• When a CEO leaves without establishing a successor, he is casting doubt on the future health of the company.
• Succession planning is not a one-time decision; it is a long-term ongoing process. Every company needs to be identifying potential successors - at all levels of the organization - and grooming them for future responsibilities.

You may see different versions of this question in your life as:

Research shows that well over 50% of companies promote their CEOs from within. Such companies understand a central tenet of business-that a well-crafted succession plan vastly minimizes disruption when the CEO leaves, expected or not. (Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric) Build leadership capacity incrementally. Upgrade corporate training so that it becomes an industry-wide credential. (Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way)

Do you truthfully answer this Yes or No?

Why?

Why Not?

How can the notes you just made help in your life, job and business? What one issue from your thoughts you noted when truthfully answering this question, will you start improving, TODAY?

Because risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things like bounced checks, losing your best customers or best people when you are blindsided. You need to create peripheral vision in your business so you are not blindsided.

You need a perspective of life under the microscope and to have lived to tell the tale. Insights give a common sense approach to what people make complex, as companies grow.

God forbid, but if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, do you have a trusted lieutenant who can keep your company on track?

To help you answer this question, think about the following comments:

• Choosing a successor is one of the most important decisions that a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and board can make. Bank of America was widely criticized when CEO Ken Lewis resigned with no clear succession plan in place. Several months after he announced that he was stepping down, no successor had been identified to replace him.
• Succession planning is not an academic exercise. It is not simply a question of finding the right person. It is an activity that is central to the health of the company.
• If companies do not have a good succession plan in place, at all levels of the company, but especially for the top job, they are doing a disservice to their stakeholders.
• If companies do not have a succession plan, to some extent, they are being negligent. It is like parents who die without leaving a will. You need to be able to pass along the knowledge and intentions that are meant to guide the company after you are gone.
• Also, your employees, customers and shareholders also need to be reassured that the company is in good hands no matter who holds the title of CEO. They need to know that there is continuity and certain bedrock principles guiding the company into the future.
• When a CEO leaves without establishing a successor, he is casting doubt on the future health of the company.
• Succession planning is not a one-time decision; it is a long-term ongoing process. Every company needs to be identifying potential successors - at all levels of the organization - and grooming them for future responsibilities.

You may see different versions of this question in your life as:

Research shows that well over 50% of companies promote their CEOs from within. Such companies understand a central tenet of business-that a well-crafted succession plan vastly minimizes disruption when the CEO leaves, expected or not. (Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric) Build leadership capacity incrementally. Upgrade corporate training so that it becomes an industry-wide credential. (Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way)

Do you truthfully answer this Yes or No?

Why?

Why Not?

How can the notes you just made help in your life, job and business? What one issue from your thoughts you noted when truthfully answering this question, will you start improving, TODAY?

Because risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things like bounced checks, losing your best customers or best people when you are blindsided. You need to create peripheral vision in your business so you are not blindsided.

You need a perspective of life under the microscope and to have lived to tell the tale. Insights give a common sense approach to what people make complex, as companies grow.

The HITECH Act was effective last month, and by now medical transcriptionists should have implemented steps for compliance. This article will give some highlights of where you should be by this time. If you’re not there yet, now is the time to get it done because it means you are out of compliance.

This list covers those who are independent contractors and/or business owners. Keep in mind that an independent contractor IS a business owner, so if you are an IC with a company of one, these rules still apply to you if you contract directly with a covered entity. If, however, you contract with a medical transcription service, then you are most likely a subcontractor to them. While you do still have to follow the rules, it’s a tad different in what you are required by law to have in place.

By now, you should have:

• Identified both a privacy and security officer for your company (this can be the same person, although it does not have to be).
• Performed a formal risk analysis of your systems, both for privacy and security.
• A set of formal written policies and procedures for all of the things related to the privacy and security rules. Within the security rule, you must at least address every point in the specifications even if you don’t institute them. When something is not done, then addressing it must show why it was not reasonable for you to do that. In that justification, you also have to show why an alternative would not work.
• Outline a strategy for disaster recovery and access to information in the event of a disaster.
• Conducted training on both privacy and security for your staff (and security training must be done annually, which should also be outlined in your policies).
• Updated your business associate contracts to add the new language required with the changes in the rules

And that’s just the start of the list! If you haven’t started on this yet, NOW is the time to make that move. Be sure you learn now what you must be doing so you are not found to be non-compliant. The law now requires audits be done to be sure people are compliant and you don’t want to be the one who gets audited and is found to have completely ignored the new rule.

The HIPAA rules all speak of “protected health information,” or PHI. What does that really cover? It is important to understand what it is so that you are sure you have the correct protections in place. Let’s explore the definition of PHI a bit here. The rule defines individually identifiable health information as:

Individually identifiable health information is information that is a subset of health information, including demographic information collected from an individual, and…

1. Is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse; and
2. Relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual; the provision of health care to an individual; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual; and 1. That identifies the individual; or 2. With respect to which there is a reasonable basis to believe the information can be used to identify the individual.

It then goes on to define “protected health information” in this way: Protected health information, or PHI, is individually identifiable health information:

1. Transmitted by electronic media; or
2. Maintained in electronic media; or
3. Transmitted or maintained in any other form or medium.

What that tells us is that it covers health information in ANY form. While the privacy rule applies to the information in any form, the security rule focuses on information that is created and stored electronically, including spoken conversations.

What about De-Identified Information?

The rules do allow for the use of information if it is de-identified. What is important to remember here is that the rule includes several things that must be removed before something is considered de-identified. Here’s the list:

(A) Names;
(B) All geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: (1) The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and (2) The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.
(C) All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older;
(D) Telephone numbers;
(E) Fax numbers;
(F) Electronic mail addresses;
(G) Social security numbers;
(H) Medical record numbers;
(I) Health plan beneficiary numbers;
(J) Account numbers;
(K) Certificate/license numbers;
(L) Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers;
(M) Device identifiers and serial numbers;
(N) Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs);
(O) Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers;
(P) Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints;
(Q) Full face photographic images and any comparable images; and
(R) Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code, except as permitted by paragraph (c) of this

Historically, we have faithfully removed all demographic information from the headers of a report, and we have used the words “the patient” when a physician dictates the name of the patient. If you really look at the above list, you will see that it’s much more detailed than that. When a pacemaker is implanted, for example, the physician gives the model number and serial number, right in the middle of the report. With (M) above, that report is not considered de-identified information.

The rule also states that the information must be such that a reasonable person with a statistical background would not be able to figure out the person’s identity. Lastly, it says that the covered entity must not have knowledge that the information could be used, alone or with other information, to identify the person.

It is critical to understand the meaning of PHI and how it applies to your setting. It is also important that all persons involved in the workforce be clear on the definitions. Be sure you have research these rules so you understand them and know how they apply to your work setting.

God forbid, but if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, do you have a trusted lieutenant who can keep your company on track?

To help you answer this question, think about the following comments:

• Choosing a successor is one of the most important decisions that a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and board can make. Bank of America was widely criticized when CEO Ken Lewis resigned with no clear succession plan in place. Several months after he announced that he was stepping down, no successor had been identified to replace him.
• Succession planning is not an academic exercise. It is not simply a question of finding the right person. It is an activity that is central to the health of the company.
• If companies do not have a good succession plan in place, at all levels of the company, but especially for the top job, they are doing a disservice to their stakeholders.
• If companies do not have a succession plan, to some extent, they are being negligent. It is like parents who die without leaving a will. You need to be able to pass along the knowledge and intentions that are meant to guide the company after you are gone.
• Also, your employees, customers and shareholders also need to be reassured that the company is in good hands no matter who holds the title of CEO. They need to know that there is continuity and certain bedrock principles guiding the company into the future.
• When a CEO leaves without establishing a successor, he is casting doubt on the future health of the company.
• Succession planning is not a one-time decision; it is a long-term ongoing process. Every company needs to be identifying potential successors - at all levels of the organization - and grooming them for future responsibilities.

You may see different versions of this question in your life as:

Research shows that well over 50% of companies promote their CEOs from within. Such companies understand a central tenet of business-that a well-crafted succession plan vastly minimizes disruption when the CEO leaves, expected or not. (Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric) Build leadership capacity incrementally. Upgrade corporate training so that it becomes an industry-wide credential. (Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way)

Do you truthfully answer this Yes or No?

Why?

Why Not?

How can the notes you just made help in your life, job and business? What one issue from your thoughts you noted when truthfully answering this question, will you start improving, TODAY?

Because risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things like bounced checks, losing your best customers or best people when you are blindsided. You need to create peripheral vision in your business so you are not blindsided.

You need a perspective of life under the microscope and to have lived to tell the tale. Insights give a common sense approach to what people make complex, as companies grow.