HHS's Leon Rodriguez Delivers Keynote at HIMSS Privacy & Security Forum

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Leon Rodriguez, Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR),  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will deliver the opening keynote address at the 2^nd annual Privacy & Security Forum hosted by HIMSS Media.  The event will take place at the Boston InterContinental Hotel on Sept. 23- 24.

Rodriquez will address senior healthcare privacy and security officials, a presentation coinciding with the first day of sweeping new regulations designed to protect patient privacy contained in the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule released in January.  His keynote address will highlight the new regulations and their importance to patient privacy and help provide guidance to healthcare organizations on how to effectively comply with the new rules.

"These changes not only greatly enhance a patient's privacy rights and protections, but also strengthen the ability of my office to vigorously enforce the HIPAA privacy and security protections, regardless of whether the information is being held by a health plan, a healthcare provider, or one of their business associates," Rodriguez said in a statement when the new HIPAA regulations were unveiled earlier this year.

In addition to details on the updated HIPAA rules, Rodriguez will address what the OCR sees as significant opportunities for ensuring that consumers have meaningful opportunities to engage in their healthcare through greater access to their health information and choices on sharing it with third parties. Rodriguez will also discuss protections from unwanted marketing or sale of patient health information and will provide insight into OCR's enforcement and audit programs, including areas where organizations can focus their attention to assure that their electronic health information is kept safe and secure.

Day 2 of the Privacy & Security Forum will include a keynote from Jennings Aske, Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer with Partners HealthCare, one of the largest integrated health networks in the Northeast.

In his keynote, Aske will issue "A Healthcare Privacy and Security Call to Arms," detailing the investments he believes healthcare providers need to make now in order to provide adequate security, while also detailing his unique approach for getting buy-in from senior management and the clinical staff for his privacy and security program.

The Forum will include several other high-profile speakers, including Joy Pritts, Chief Privacy Officer with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).  Pritts, ONC's top privacy official, will take the stage for a live interview with the Healthcare IT News Managing Editor Mike Miliard. Pritts will answer questions about a broad range of subjects including the final HIPAA Omnibus Privacy and Security rules, what will drive advances in data security as healthcare attempts to catch up with other industries and the role ONC can play in helping to improve privacy and security of PHI.

Produced by HIMSS Media, the second annual Privacy & Security Forum will provide attendees with feet-on-the-ground lessons about developing security programs, responding to security breaches, securing and developing policies involving mobile devices, and developing compliance programs in response to new government regulations, among others. Attendees will learn from their peers and take with them valuable, actionable lessons that will help strengthen their own privacy and security efforts.

Selected sessions will focus on top-of-mind issues including:

• Managing security risks and compliance of health data in the cloud;
• Creating  an effective BYOD program;
• Finding the balance point between patient privacy and the growing thirst for data; and
• Preventing and responding to a security breach, should  a breach occur.

Visit http://healthprivacyforum.com/ for more information on the Privacy & Security Forum on Sept. 23-24 in Boston.

About HIMSS Media

HIMSS Media produces and distributes essential information to help advance the transformation of health and healthcare through the best use of information technology. Over 500,000 leading healthcare influencers, medical professionals, policy makers and technology buyers around the world rely on the media, events, data and training materials to evaluate and implement effective improvements in patient care. With global scale and local expertise, HIMSS Media offers innovative, effective and measurable media and marketing solutions for health and healthcare technology marketers. www.himssmedia.com

HIMSS Media is a part of HIMSS WorldWide, a cause-based, global enterprise that produces health IT thought leadership, education, events, market research and media services around the world. Founded in 1961, HIMSS WorldWide encompasses more than 52,000 individual members, of which more than two-thirds work in healthcare provider, governmental and not-for-profit organizations across the globe, plus over 600 corporate members and 250 not-for-profit partner organizations, that share this cause.  HIMSS WorldWide, headquartered in Chicago, serves global health IT communities with additional offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

SOURCE HIMSS Media