PRESIDENT'S MESSAGES | SPRING 2008

By: Tony Giacobazzi
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Congratulations to Eric Iwamoto and Dan Halpert for hosting this year's March 15th AADMRT Spring Conference in Universal City, California. They did an outstanding job of providing "star" quality accommodations at the beautiful Universal Hilton Hotel. They also were able to arrange stellar speakers who provided us with a wealth of knowledge and ideas. A huge round of applause goes to Eric and Dan for doing all the behind the scenes work that made this day so successful. Take a bow, gentlemen!

Our day was comprised of sessions that were both extensive and varied. We heard about promoting our business, looking at cone beam images through a radiologist's eyes, the legal aspects of cone beam imaging, HIPAA laws and how they apply to our industry. The expertise that was available to us from our esteemed speakers made the day incredibly worthwhile.

To those of you that were not able to attend this meeting, I would like to touch on a few points brought forth by Peterson and Bradford, LLP. A few of the highlights presented by Mr. Peterson on Cone Beam Imaging:

Cone Beam Imaging

  • What information should we send to the doctor? How much information is enough information?
  • How much information on the scan is the dentist responsible for (pathologies, outside the area of interest)?
  • Provide a letter to the referring doctors indicating reports are not the total extent of the information available.
A few of the highlights presented by Mr. Bradford on the HIPAA privacy rules:

HIPAA:

  • Anyone who transmits health information is responsible to abide by the HIPAA laws.
  • Every entity must provide a notice of its privacy practices, and describe the ways in which the information may be used.
  • The notice must describe the entity's duties to protect a patient's privacy.
  • The entity must make an effort to obtain written acknowledgement from the patient that they have reviewed the privacy practices notice.
  • If a signature of receipt is not obtained, documentation providing a reason for the failure must be provided.
  • Individuals have the right to request a restriction of information disclosure.
  • Safeguards include the shredding of documents containing protected health information before discarding them.
Mr. Bradford's points were taken from the Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. He strongly recommends that everyone obtain a copy and read at least this version of the HIPPA privacy rules. You can download a copy by going to: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.

Our next opportunity to get together will be the AAMART Fall Conference which will be held in San Francisco. Hope to see you all there!

Tony