Surprisingly, yes.
Medicare just announced that insurance companies can use the Amazon cloud to report their required ObamaCare information to the government.
Under ObamaCare, insurance companies must provide information to the government to determine if they owe money or will receive money from the government. This is an important aspect of ObamaCare as it forces insurance companies to have both “risk and reward.” This information is required to avoid large premium increases in the first 3 years.
Insurance companies previously had to buy expensive hardware to provide the information to the government. Medicare just decided that the information could also be stored on the Amazon cloud.
Insurance companies are concerned about:
1. The security of the health information;
2. The redundancy of other systems insurance companies already have in place;
3. The Amazon option being offered to late to get an accurate picture of the risk pool. Article
This is simply another example how health information is becoming more available in locations that the healthcare provider and patient would never know about. As a result of these rapid changes, healthcare providers and consumers must be vigilant that they monitor their health information and have the mandatory HIPAA and security measures in place. If there is a breach of health information, the healthcare provider does not want to take the liability when the information is now in so many varied locations by many different companies.
Tell us how your organization protects its information? Share your ideas with us by clicking on the comment button below. We’d love to hear from you.
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