AHA selects Computer Associates as a resource to help hospitals achieve HIPAA security compliance

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has endorsed solutions from Computer Associates International, Inc`s (CA) eTrust and BrightStor suites as a resource for security and storage management to help hospitals comply with the newly enacted Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security regulations.

The HIPAA security regulations require certain healthcare payers, providers and healthcare clearinghouses to establish procedures and mechanisms to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic protected health information, and to ensure the restoration of lost data.

Putting the findings from an organisation`s HIPAA risk/gap assessment into application can be a daunting assignment, and hospitals and other healthcare providers must be compliant with the new regulations no later than 21 April 2005. While compliance with the security rule cannot be achieved through new information systems alone, the AHA is pleased to bring additional HIPAA resources to the forefront for its members. Achieving compliance will require attention from a hospital`s compliance, legal and information technology departments.

After a lengthy evaluation, the AHA selected CA because of its subject-matter expertise in healthcare, the technical excellence of its security and storage management solutions and its strong track record in serving the healthcare marketplace.

"This endorsement of CA`s security software complements AHA`s selection last summer of Ernst & Young LLP as the endorsed HIPAA security services provider, rounding out the tools and resources needed by our members to comply," stated Tim Steffl, vice-president for AHA Financial Solutions. "CA provides an additional resource for AHA members who are grappling with the challenges presented by the new regulatory environment."

"CA solutions can be helpful to hospitals and healthcare providers as they work to comply with HIPAA security requirements and improve the efficiency and reliability of their operations," said Mike McDermand, Computer Associates vice-president of healthcare solutions. "The American Hospital Association`s endorsement of the quality and breadth of CA`s security and storage management solutions is a strong validation of CA`s longstanding and successful support of the healthcare industry."

CA solutions endorsed by the AHA include:

Security Management

eTrust Identity and Access Management Suite, a comprehensive, standards-based solution that empowers hospitals to manage the identity, access and auditing requirements of the HIPAA security regulations and significantly reduce costs. Combining provisioning, enforcement and auditing with a common architecture and shared administrative/ user interface, the eTrust Identity and Access Management Suite consists of six modular components:

* eTrust Admin - helps automate the costly and time-consuming task of managing users while addressing the HIPAA requirement to provide only the "correct" level of access.

* eTrust Access Control - provides identity-based access control to key data resources such as servers, files and applications that directly address key HIPAA "access"-related requirements.

* eTrust Audit - delivers identity and access-based auditing that provides hospitals with the mandatory data access and usage tracking called for by HIPAA.

* eTrust Directory - a scalable and secure identity repository that acts as an identity backbone.

* eTrust Single Sign-On - provides secure, simplified access to multiple applications that allows hospital staff fast and efficient access to patient information while helping to enable HIPAA security compliance.

* eTrust Web Access Control - delivers secure identity-based access control to hospital informational resources located on Web sites, portals and through Web services and other extranet resources.

Storage Management

The BrightStor family of storage management solutions enables healthcare organisations to manage, protect, optimise and recover Protected Health Information. AHA-endorsed BrightStor solutions include:

* BrightStor Portal - provides centralized monitoring of healthcare data protection processes, including complex and diverse storage hardware and software.

* BrightStor Storage Resource Manager - allows organisations to maximise the value of their storage hardware investments to accommodate the additional storage requirements of HIPAA, while providing backup reports and analysing backup storage trends.

* BrightStor ARCserve Backup - an industry-leading backup/recovery solution that helps protect healthcare data and ensures the recoverability of data in the event of a disaster.

In the coming weeks, AHA members will receive detailed information regarding these security and storage solutions. Organisations interested in learning more about this issue or the services offered through CA can contact Nancy L. Scott, account executive, at 800 242 4677, or via e-mail at nscott@aha.org.