Massachusetts hospitals have joined other state businesses in voicing concern about complying with a new state identity theft law set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2009, Modern Healthcare reports.
The legislation -- signed into law in August 2007 -- expands on the state's medical identity theft prevention efforts by requiring the encryption of personal information stored on portable devices, such as laptop computers and handheld PDAs.
Most businesses, including hospitals, say that they support the law but that they are concerned about meeting the state's deadline.
In a written statement, Massachusetts Hospital Association spokesperson Catherine Bromberg said that MHA does not believe the Jan. 1, 2009, deadline can be met. She added that last week, the hospital association "joined a broad coalition of businesses that sent a letter to [Massachusetts] Gov. Deval Patrick (D) expressing their concerns and asking for a reasonable one-year delay."
According to the MHA statement and letter to the governor, hospitals are concerned about the feasibility and cost of adding encryption capabilities to older systems.
Many hospitals already have adopted some of the new IT security requirements to comply with HIPAA privacy regulations, but health care providers are concerned about the challenge of implementing encryption technology for portable devices, MHA officials said (Rhea, Modern Healthcare, 10/29).