Kroll Helps Healthcare Providers Face Looming Red Flag Rules (Business Wire)
Mon, 8 Jun 2009 13:00:00 Etc/GMT
The Red Flag Rules specifically call for the creation of a formal, written and revisable plan for identity theft prevention that includes provisions for identifying, detecting and responding to identity theft. Kroll’s breach preparedness program helps organizations create a customized plan to address the specific needs of their facilities and, in doing so, addresses many critical questions about how identity theft might affect their practices, including: How do we verify a patient’s or insured’s identity? What is our exposure to risk from third party vendors? How do we train employees to look beyond HIPAA to the threat of identity theft overall?
“The study we did with HIMSS Analytics last year showed that HIPAA compliance has caused some hospitals to lose sight of the bigger threat,” said Brian Lapidus, chief operating officer of the fraud solutions division of Kroll. “Many of our breach clients – organizations that have lost or exposed individuals’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers – are healthcare providers.” Lapidus continued, “This breach preparedness program is built from our experiences guiding them through a compliant resolution. We know what works.”
Kroll’s breach preparedness program will help providers develop a flexible, scalable program to identify and respond to the red flags of identity theft that affect their patients. Among the program’s key features are:
- Proprietary Risk Self-Assessment is a powerful analytical tool for facilities that need help detecting existing data risk hot-spots and determining how well protected the exposures are at current security levels.
- Privacy Awareness Training Courseware helps organizations meet the requirement for ongoing education for those employees who must handle sensitive personal information. The courseware is SCORM compliant, so that it may be deployed with most standardized e-learning platforms.
- Incident Response Plan is designed for facility decision makers in the process of identifying roles/responsibilities and organizing policies/procedures for responding to a data breach, as required by HIPAA and expanded upon in the forthcoming HITECH regulations.
- Legislative Updates ensure clients stay up-to-date on data breach notification and related privacy regulations. These services are supported by a web-based client portal that provides not only access to but full control of the management process in the event of a breach.
Besides the resources identified above, Kroll continues to combine the power of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC), the global professional services firm, to provide access to privacy liability insurance, data forensics, forensic accounting and the industry’s premier notification and services support.
About Kroll
Kroll, the world’s leading risk consulting company, provides a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security and technology services to help clients reduce risks, solve problems and capitalize on opportunities. Kroll Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MMC - News), the global professional services firm. Kroll began providing identity theft solutions in 1999 and created its Fraud Solutions practice in 2002 in response to increasing requests from clients for counsel and services associated with the loss of sensitive personal information, and related identity protection and restoration issues facing organizations and individuals. Since then, Kroll’s Fraud Solutions clients have included Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, and government entities dealing with healthcare, financial services, insurance, consumer service, and any activity involving the collection and use of personal information. Kroll’s Fraud Solutions team presently serves over 10,000 businesses and millions of individual consumers. For more information, visit: www.krollfraudsolutions.com.
Contact:
Fleishman-Hillard Emilie Moghadam, 202-857-2212 emilie.moghadam@fleishman.com
source: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090608/20090608005215.html?.v=1