Travis County Commssioners Court
April 1, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 18
Now we see human resources out there, so there must be a few of those items. Starting with number 18. 18. Consider health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa) and take appropriate action on the following:a. Hipaa policies and procedures; b. Hipaa privacy notice; c. Various hipaa authorizations; and d. Complaint forms.
>> good afternoon, judge and Commissioners. Alicia perez, executive manager for administrative operations. Last week we brought the hippa policies for your review and this week you had asked us to bring to you a one-page summary of the policies and also the information that would be passed out to all employees concerning the health insurance portability and accountability act. You have that before you. In blue, it's a one-page front and back that talks about what the -- what hippa is and the phi, what that consists of, and then in the back it answers some commonly asked questions about the policy and then the rest of it is a notice of -- about the actual policies and procedures.
>> okay.
>> there will be one change in what you have before you and that is the spanish version. [speaking in spanish] and then it will change. [speaking in spanish]
>> human resources, so the language just needed a -- a little change.
>> gracias.
>> thrats least three of you that understood everything that I said.
>> or most of it.
>> alicia, quick question. Is there something that in terms to make sure that people acknowledge that they have received this, is there something that we are going to put in a record that basically says, hello, I acknowledge that I have received this information, are we doing that? Are we required to do that? Is it a good idea that we do that? I’m trying to think of things down the line of somebody saying, well, I never knew that.
>> well, we are not required I think about the law to have a signature. But wear going to keep it on the tc net. We are going to send it to the departments to be distributed and to have the h.r. Liaisons post, not to mention handing it out at new comply orientation, so new employees get it as they come in. But no, as far as I know, we are not required to have a signature.
>> the summary plat description will be amended to add this to it. So everyone will get a new summary plan description.
>> this is the privacy notice.
>> this is the privacy notice. It isn't contained in its entirety in the policies and -- it is contained in the policies and procedures as well.
>> this will be provided in spanish and english.
>> the spanish part is just the information that you see in the box. We have instructed the people to call human resources in they need further explanation in spanish, then we will have staff help them.
>> questions, comments about the privacy notice? Then I move approval of the hippa privacy notice.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. And you will get this in the hands of the county employees in various ways.
>> yes, sir.
>> can we go back to the policies and procedures?
>> yes, sir.
>> the -- a, we did have a chance to discuss these a little bit last week to make sure --
>> a scintillating discussion I’m sure it was.
>> it certainly was. We thought that we would take a week to think about, mull officer, review, et cetera. Questions, comments? These as we saw them last week, right?
>> yes, sir.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> any discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 18 c is the -- the various hippa authorizations s.
>> yes, judge. The various hippa authorizations are again a means for the employees to allow other people to access information, say a spouse needs to call on the family's health insurance claims or something like that. The employee could authorize release of information. It's just a means for the employee to authorize release of information. Also to request copies of disclosures. There's various different requests forms, authorizations, in that whole stack of forms. It's basically gives us a vehicle so we have written authorization in most cases or written request. And all of those would go to the privacy officer. He would respond to the requester as far as the authorization or the disclosure. Whether it is something that the plan could accommodate them on or not.
>> and we have appointed mr. Mansour the privacy officer.
>> the risk manager is, that's what the request is, yes.
>> question abouts the authorizations? Then I move that the various ones be approved.
>> so move.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> barbara has a question.
>> I’m sorry.
>> would you mind also specifically approving the privacy rule.
>> the privacy rule.
>> yes.
>> what page is that on?
>> 34. Under your authorizations. But -- but the -- it's one of those special ones that it would be helpful to have it very clear that that's one of the things that you have approved.
>> okay. Move approval of the privacy rule contained on pages 34, 35, 36 because it is rather specific and we need to make clear that we have approved it.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Complaint forms?
>> again, judge, it is the -- the vehicle for an employee to issue a written complaint, toter the privacy officer -- either to the privacy officer or to help in human services if they feel a violation has been made.
>> and we review that complaint form periodically to make sure that it's as simple as we intend for it to be and --
>> yes, sir.
>> and as used by employees. Move approval.
>> second.
>> any discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> I know that we just really blasted through all of this stuff, but the reality is that this is the culmination of months and months and months of work and I just want to publicly acknowledge what cindy andyian, alicia, all of the other folks have done on this, this is a Monday you minimum tall task -- Monday you minimum tall -- large task. This is something that we had to get done by a certain date, we did.
>> April the 14th, so we got it approved today it will go into action. I also want to commend cindy and let the court know that she was just got clearance or got her certification as a certified government benefits administration.
>> all right.
>> congratulations, cindy.
>> one other point that I would like to make, we will be coming back to court next week with the tail end pieces of the hippa legislation, like the amendments to the summary plan descriptions and anything else that we are hooking, but this just about covered it all.
>> that's good news.
>> uh-huh.
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 8, 2003 1:25 PM