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Many dental practices may have struggled to get ready for the April 14, 2003 HIPAA privacy deadline and are now looking at developing a plan for the future. It is important to realize that HIPAA is not a one-time issue like Y2K but rather an on-going issue for patients and staff.

The American Dental Association’s HIPAA Privacy Kit contains an excellent “HIPAA to-do list” which includes a number of steps which may have already been accomplished in most dental offices: developing written privacy policies, procedures and forms, training your staff, notifying your patients of their privacy rights, identify your business associates and developing an internal audit process. The Privacy Kit is available on the ADA Web site.5

The American Dental Association has a HIPAA Privacy Checklist available on its web site. This checklist is a good tool to determine the best plan for a dental practice. HIPAA will require on-going changes to any dental practice as the rules themselves mature over time and new rules are implemented, for example as the HIPAA security rules become effective in 2005.