WASHINGTON DC USA -- HEALTHCARE UPDATE NEWS SERVICE(TM) -- NOVEMBER 4, 2003: The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is pleased to announce its Fourth National WEDI SNIP Summit, November 17-20, 2003, at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC. The Summit will focus on options and approaches to solving HIPAA implementation challenges and other EDI innovations in the healthcare industry. This two and one half day conference will give you the information you need to determine strategies for meeting HIPAA regulations in your organization. This event is designed for those of you who want to discuss strategies for maintaining compliance, want to learn from those who are currently fulfilling their compliance objectives, and those who want to learn about upcoming EDI issues that are affecting and improving the healthcare industry. Join WEDI, a consortium of industry leaders designated to serve as an advisor to the HHS Secretary on the HIPAA mandate, as we all work together to achieve compliance with the latest EDI standards.

The WEDI SNIP 4th National Summit will kickoff with a one day meeting, Healthcare Information Security: Setting the Agenda, on Monday, November 17. This special pre-conference event is sponsored by NIST, URAC, and WEDI. Ensuring the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of health information is an imperative for the healthcare sector. In fact, Information Security is not new to the health and insurance industries, and there are a multitude of laws and standards that have been used by various parts of the industry for a variety of purposes. Standards and guidance may be found in the HIPAA Security Rule, ISO 17799, CMS Core Security Requirements, the Systems Security Engineering Capability Maturity Model, CMS Internet Security Requirements, Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Program, OMB Circular A-130, the NIST 800 series and many other regulations and guidelines. Join the NIST/URAC/WEDI Healthcare Security Workgroup as we discuss current IT security issues and begin projects to move these issues forward. Separate registration is required. More information can be found on the WEDI website, www.wedi.org.