How one hospital took on HIPAA and 'PHI' - U. of Michigan Health System.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; protected health information)(Brief Article)

CHICAGO - How do you prepare for HIPAA when health care is not the main business of your organization? What happens when health care providers are scattered throughout your organization, reporting to administrators who do not always know what HIPAA is about--or what the law will let them do?

Theodore Sanford, M.D., chief compliance officer at the University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, faced these problems and found an imaginative way to prepare university staff for HIPAA. He told his story April 23 to HCCA's 2002 Annual Compliance Institute here.

The University of Michigan is directed by a president who reports to the Board of Regents. The Executive VP of Medical Affairs oversees the Medical School and the Hospital and …