Venali
and HIPAA Compliance
As a result of the growing demand for Venali Desktop
Internet Fax Services in the medical
industry, many organizations are seeking information
about HIPAA compliance and how it relates to implementing
Venali. This information is presented in the following
three sections:
HIPAA Compliance: Fax Machines and IT
Venali Desktop Internet Fax Services
Venali Security and HIPAA
Organizations that have questions about their specific
needs and implementation plans are
encouraged to contact an Authorized Venali Solutions
Provider or Solutions Integrator.
HIPAA Compliance: Fax Machines and IT
Today many patient records, documents and transactions
are delivered and exchanged using fax systems while physician’s
offices, clinics and hospitals launch and support their
HIPAA initiatives.
The HIPAA rules, both established and anticipated, provide
a catalyst for medical organizations
to increase their use of IT for handling their protected
health care information. But IT systems can only reach
so far. For numerous reasons, the need to exchange the
bulk of this information via fax is a reality. One of
the fundamental drivers behind the creation of HIPAA
itself was the need for many different organizations
and people to share a single patient’s information.
The need to exchange information between care providers
means that regardless of what
internal IT investments and improvements are made by
a medical organization, they can not
eliminate the need to share some data with other care
givers via fax technology. Depending on
the types of information being exchanged and the types
of organizations they are sharing it with, many medical
organizations have enough faxing volume and activity
to merit improvements in how they send, receive, log
and store faxes.
IT Systems/Features – HIPAA Advantages Faxing – HIPAA
Disadvantages
PC’s and workstations have user login and password
systems. Everyone in a medical office has physical access
to one or more fax machines. All popular PCs and operating
systems are
designed to blank screens and lock for re-login when
there is no recent use.
Many received faxes remain on the fax machine or in a
holding tray for long
periods of time. Information is stored digitally behind
robust IT security systems and policies. Information
is stored on paper creating the need for expensive storage
improvements along with inefficient and cumbersome policies
and processes.
Venali Desktop Internet Fax Services
By enabling users to send and receive faxes to and from
anywhere in the world from their PC or
workstation just as easily as they send and receive email,
Venali Desktop Internet Fax Services
deliver convenient mouse-click and keyboard access to
faxing. By enabling organizations to log,
store, and manage their fax records, Venali Internet
Desktop Fax Services combines the power and convenience
of IT systems with the need to support and manage fax
as a means of exchanging information. With Venali Desktop
Internet Fax Services, medical organizations use the
many inherent HIPAA advantages of IT systems while eliminating
the HIPAA disadvantages associated with faxing.
Venali Security and HIPAA
Organizations with HIPAA compliant email systems gain
significant HIPAA compliance advantages for faxing while
also enjoying the many other Venali customer benefits.
Deploying Venali requires virtually no up-front investment
or user training. And unlike traditional fax methods,
Venali solutions do not require ordering, installing
and managing servers, fax machines, and phone lines.
The exchange of information via the public internet is
not yet considered to be fully HIPAA compliant but there
are effective methods to deploy Venali and using the
internet for connectivity. The most effective way for
organizations to deploy a HIPAA-compliant Venali implementation
is by connecting to Venali via a Virtual Private Network.
Using this method leverages the low costs of the internet
infrastructure while ensuring that emails containing
in-bound or out-bound faxes travel only through a secure
and encrypted virtual tunnel.
Alternatively, Venali can be deployed by integrating
it with the Microsoft Fax Client that is part of Windows
2000 and higher. Using this implementation method eliminates
the need for a VPN
connection but all in-bound and out-bound faxes are secure
because they are encrypted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
Organizations seeking information about Venali Desktop
Internet Fax Services should contact their Venali Solutions
Provider/Integrator or Venali sales at 786.276.0660 or
sales@venali.com.
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