Staying Current with the Regulations

Despite the burden of other aspects of managing a dental practice, the dentist needs to keep an eye on the evolutionary trajectory of information technology that supports the practice.  There is an ongoing introduction of products and services to aid the dentist, but each practitioner needs to continue to evaluate them in terms of the functions that link support of patient care to the administrative transactions needed to communicate with the world external to the practice as well as help internal practice management.  The ADA’s website (www.ada.org) and the work of the ADA’s Standards Committee on Dental Informatics (SCDI) is, as was noted earlier², an important central source of focused information for the dentist.  Numerous informational websites will arise and some of these will also appear on the general EHR website http://www.ehrweb.org, also noted earlier.  These sites will provide links to other specialty sites such as those relevant to the dental practice supply chain, specialty services, training, and other professional education subjects that can be accessed from the present and future practice information architecture using the common hardware and software infrastructure of the practice.  The outlook developed by the dentist in complying with the HIPAA requirements addressed in this presentation will enable this ability.

Click Here To Navigate Within Article >> Abstract Introduction Protecting Personal Health Information (PHI) Privacy Policies Professional Communications and Privacy Patient Authorization Requirements Privacy Training An Overview of HIPAA and its Dental Implications Staying Current with the Regulations Conclusion References About the Authors
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Citation Number: Vol. 4, No. 1, Page 067