Austin, TX, April 13, 2010 — CynergisTek™, a leading provider of IT security solutions for healthcare organizations, today announced the launch of its HIPAA/HITECH Security Compliance Review solution tailored for the nation’s smallest and most underserved hospitals, which qualify for The Office of Rural Health Policy’s Small Rural Hospital Improvement (SHIP) Grants. The service takes a hospital through all of the privacy and security requirements of HIPAA and the HITECH Act, evaluates its current performance and identifies compliance gaps. CynergisTek then documents an action plan designed to bring the hospital into compliance with HIPAA and HITECH such that it is best positioned to benefit from stimulus opportunities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and help shore up the hospital’s security posture.
The SHIP Grant Program provides funding to small rural hospitals with 49 beds or less to help them comply with the recent provisions of HIPAA. The SHIP Grant Program also works to provide funding to rural hospitals to reduce medical errors, support quality improvement and help pay for costs related to the implementation of PPS. Currently, eligible hospitals can receive up to $8,640 annually from the SHIP Grant.
Small rural hospitals are already greatly challenged in the areas of HIPAA and HITECH compliance, and under ARRA, there are even more dollars at stake. For many hospitals, the IT and compliance departments comprise just a handful of staff that are focused on daily operations, making it difficult for them to become experts in this highly complex regulatory terrain despite their best efforts. Hospitals in rural locations with poor financial conditions simply do not garner the attention of expert firms to assist them. CynergisTek has embraced the unique challenge put forth and designed an offering tailored to the rural hospital for a fee that is well within the parameters of the SHIP Grant Program.
“According to the Office of Rural Health Policy, there are approximately 1,600 hospitals that qualify for the SHIP Grant Program. Over the years we have served many rural hospitals and realize their challenges to keep pace with their larger counterparts can be immense. In this era of ARRA and HITECH, the potential for this gap to grow even more significantly is great. At CynergisTek, our goal is provide solutions that will help those who want to leverage the SHIP Grant Program to help comply with HIPAA,” said Mac McMillan, Chief Executive Officer, CynergisTek.
CynergisTek’s solutions and services are specifically designed to help healthcare organizations improve their security posture, facilitate compliance, improve operational efficiency and foster trust. CynergisTek service offerings and methods include:
• Risk management and evaluation
• IT security strategy
• Technical security
• Regulatory Compliance audit
• Managed security services
