Aristotle first started to theorize about the laws of physics including the law of inertia.  Galileo restated Aristotle a bit and added his own twists to the concepts.  When we finally got Newton’s two cents added we got to this scientific statement:  A body will keep its speed and direction so long as no force in its motion or direction acts on it.   A less scientific way of putting it is:

A body in motion tends to stay in the motion unless something changes.

Over time we have realized just how true that is in the world, including changing people, entities and institutions.   So, here we are.  Sept 23, 2013.  A large part of the industry (the body) has moved at its own pace, in its own direction where HIPAA compliance is concerned.    The looming deadline is starting to affect change on the body in motion!  It is possible we have gotten more calls and inquiries in the last month for compliance assistance services than in the last year.

The next forces to change the body in motion will probably be increasing breach investigations and random audits by OCR.  If you are a CE or BA who is way off the mark on your HIPAA compliance requirements you really don’t want to be the group everyone points at that created the change in their body in motion because your situation was so bad.  Don’t let your bad fortune be the next force of change to the body in motion.  Leave that to someone else.  Preferably, someone you don’t know.  Get some help and get the ball rolling in the right direction now.  It takes a long time to change direction of a large body in motion – just ask the captain of the Titanic.

Filed under: HIPAA Tagged: Business Associate, Business Associates, Compliance, Enforcement, information hipaa, Small Provider