Top Conferences for Healthcare Privacy and Compliance Officers in 2017

With every passing year it seems like a huge number of new conferences about healthcare privacy and compliance are surfacing, all claiming to be the best in town.  It’s impossible to attend every conference, so how do privacy officers know which ones are the best?  Look no further. We’ve done the research and developed a list of the top conferences for healthcare privacy and compliance professionals to attend in 2017.

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HCCA Compliance Institute

The Compliance Institute is HCCA’s largest conference in 2017, with more than 3,000 estimated attendees.  With tons of great learning tracks, keynotes, and networking opportunities, the Compliance Institute is the perfect conference for diving into all aspects of compliance. Healthcare data breaches, patient privacy, and security will continue to be hot topics this year, and attendees will also be able to complete continuing education credits while on site.  If interested, you can also earn a number of compliance related certifications, that include:

• Healthcare Compliance (CHC)^Ⓡ
• Healthcare Privacy Compliance (CHPC)^Ⓡ
• Healthcare Research Compliance (CHRC)^Ⓡ
• Healthcare Compliance-Fellow (CHC-F)^Ⓡ

In an addition to the great educational components of the HCCA Compliance Institute, there are ample opportunities for networking with your peers and exploring new and different methods and technologies to solve real-world issues.  Be sure to check out Protenus’ patient privacy analytics platform while there.  This platform allows you to rest easy, knowing that your data is being proactively monitored, and it only brings true threats to your attention.

The HCCA Compliance Institute takes place March 26-29, 2017 just outside of Washington D.C., in the newly developed National Harbor, Maryland.

HCCA Regional Conferences

26 HCCA regional conferences are scheduled to take place around the country in 2017, making it easy for compliance professionals to find a session close to home. Each regional conference provides compliance teams great training and educational opportunities, and each conference focuses on different topics.  Look for sessions with privacy and security topics on the agenda. They are going to be key in exploring ways to address the continuing problem of patient privacy breaches.

HCCA is still working on their agendas for the 2017 conferences, but it has already announced that privacy and security will be the focus of the following conferences:

• Dallas Regional - February 17, 2017
• Washington D.C. - March 10, 2017
• New Orleans - April 21, 2017
• Philadelphia - June 2, 2017
• Nashville - November 17, 2017

*Agendas are still being finalized, so check the HCCA website for the latest information

National HIPAA Summit

This annual conference is hosted by Global Health Care, LLC and is the leading forum on healthcare EDI, privacy, confidentiality, data security, and HIPAA compliance.  There will be a lot of expertise in one location, making it a valuable learning experience for healthcare compliance officers.  The fact that the event provides the opportunity for attendees to receive continuing education credits, pending approval from the Compliance Certification Board (CCB), is another reason to attend.  The National HIPAA Summit will take place March 29 - 31, 2017 in Washington D.C.

HCCA Healthcare Basic Privacy Academies

HCCA provides extensive training for compliance officers representing the nation’s healthcare systems.  In addition to their annual and regional meetings, HCCA also hosts healthcare privacy academies four times a year in different cities throughout the country.  Each Healthcare Basic Privacy Academy is a three and a half day intensive training program that focuses on critical issues facing healthcare’s privacy and compliance practices.  These courses are designed for compliance officers looking to gain in-depth, comprehensive knowledge of key issues, that include:

• HIPAA Privacy
• Privacy Risk Assessment
• Privacy and Research
• Privacy Policies and Procedures
• Electronic Health Records
• Federal Privacy Act
• Breach Notification
• Privacy Investigations

Given the increasing prevalence of healthcare data breaches, these are a must attend for all compliance officers who want to learn how to best protect their patient data. Review our Privacy Primer if you want to get a leg up on key topics covered at these sessions.

Interested in the HCCA Healthcare Basic Privacy Academies?  Here are the dates and locations in 2017:

• March 13-16, 2017 - New Orleans, LA
• June 19-22, 2017 - Las Vegas, NV
• October 23-26, 2017 - Scottsdale, AZ
• November 6-9, 2017 - Boston, MA

HIMSS17

This conference is HIMSS’ largest event of the year.  With over 45,000 estimated attendees and more than 300 education sessions to choose from, this show is a must for any privacy and compliance officer in healthcare.  The Privacy, Security, and Cybersecurity education topics are sure to cover the latest advances in preventing and mitigating an organization's risk of a breach to patient data. There is even a session from the CMIO of Johns Hopkins Medicine that compares traditional and innovative approaches for detecting HIPAA violations and identifying ways to define appropriate and inappropriate user access to patient data.  When a world-renowned health system like Hopkins presents innovative ways to approach HIPAA violation detection, be sure to attend.

HIMSS17 will be held February 19-23, 2017 in Orlando, Florida.

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