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 DeAnne Toto
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As I write this in mid-March, we’re preparing to welcome spring, which marks the beginning of the records and information management (RIM) industry’s convention season. In 2011 the festivities begin with the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla., from March 18 to 22. The PRISM International Annual Conference will follow later this spring from May 10-12 in Miami. Both conventions promise educational sessions on a number of topics of interest to RIM professionals.
Regulatory compliance is on the agenda at both events, as recent regulations offer opportunities and challenges for RIM professionals.
NAID’s programming offers a presentation from Burke Kappler of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Kappler, who is with the FTC’s Identity Theft Prevention division, shares the agency’s regulatory approach to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) Red Flags Rule. As NAID’s conference brochure mentions, the FACTA Red Flags Rule covers nearly 40 percent of all business in the United States, making this regulation a critical sales tool for RIM service providers.
The NAID conference also includes a session on the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) and HIPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) Acts, which includes a presentation from Kirk Nahra, the author of this issue’s cover story, “Ongoing Confusion,” which begins on p. 18.
The PRISM conference also provides educational sessions on legal and regulatory compliance issues. Gail Bisbee of Confidential Records Management Inc., New Bern, N.C., presents a two-part session titled “HIPAA Compliance Issues,” which also offers insight into the FACTA Red Flags Rule and the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor Program and their effects on the RIM industry.
Another session looks at key legal issues for the RIM industry. Speakers Larry Varn, a partner in the litigation department of Sullivan & Worcester’s Boston office, and Elise Dieterich, a partner in the regulated industries practice in Sullivan & Worcester’s Washington, D.C., office, address legal relationships between RIM services providers and their clients and business associate obligations under HIPAA/HITECH.
These are clearly important issues for RIM professionals, many of whom are looking for additional guidance on these complex and far-reaching regulations.
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