b. HIPAA privacy officers apptd - Laserfiche WebLink

including the review of client files by the client themselves or by somcoan that is legally responsible for a client. Based on Doug's review of each county office's self'assessment, the most affected county deparcments under HIPAA are the Social Scrvice Office and the Auditors Office. Doug is recommending that at a minimum, someone from Social Services and someone from the Auditors Office be designated as Privacy Officers. In Social Services, this may be the Director or the person responsible for Civil Rights Issues. In larger counties it is possible that the Human Resource staff person or the County Administrator would be an overall Privacy Officer, assigned as the point person for implementing HIPAA issues for the whole county and addressing complaints that may involve the Department Privacy Officers. The smaller counties may want to have the General Privacy duties shared between the Auditors Office and the Social Service Office. Doug believes that we should start small and build only if needed. In November, Doug plans to ask all county Privacy Officers to participate in two training sessions. The first would be a general HIPAA Training Session, to be done either by video or through the Internet, and would therefore allow staffto stay in their home county without any transportation expenses. The second would be a Privacy Workshop that is scheduled on Tuesday, November 26th, 2002, at the Heritage Center in Bismarck, beginning at 12:30 and ending about 4pm. This second workshop will include speakers on the Privacy Rule, State Law preemption, steps for Privacy Compliance, Security Requirements, and a panel of various people to discuss best practices and to answer questions. The second session will be '~web cast" and will therefore allow staffto either view it through their computer in their office or attend by actually going to the Heritage Center. Please consult with your auditor and with your social service director and make your Privacy Officer appointments. Forward these names to Bonnie Amble, at NDACo. She will ensure that Doug gets these names. He will then contact them and begin to arrange for the training. Thank you for your inunediate attention.