A Reseller Educational Series — Partners in Compliance

The privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) has transformed how business is conducted in the healthcare industry. The Privacy Rule and the Simplification Rules apply to health plans, health care clearinghouse providers and to any healthcare provider who transmits health information in electronic form.

Hosted services are a major growth area for healthcare as the industry has a profusion of small providers like clinics, doctor’s offices plus home care agencies. Hosted VoIP, fax and healthcare applications are particularly attractive due to their low buy-in costs, convenience and reliability. However, HIPAA regulations (www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa) can be rather vague in the opinion of many healthcare industry professionals. So, if you are looking to become a reseller of healthcare services or seeking a service provider partner, you need to take a close look at your prospective colleagues. You do not want one of your partners to be the “weakest link in the chain” but a valued and secure resource for your company.

SecureCare Technologies, Inc. provides hosted services including their Sfax™.Digital Signature Service (www.sfaxme.com/comp.html) to some major healthcare companies. One of these is Thornberry Ltd., based in Lancaster, PA (www.thornberryltd.com) a developer and marketer of intelligent, leading-edge management information systems for the home healthcare and hospice industry since 1992. Thornberry’s NDoc® suite of products is designed to quickly deliver accurate information resulting in improved patient care, reducing costs and fostering timely reimbursement.

A recent addition to Sfax™, NewCrop LLC, provides comprehensive e-prescribing systems, delivered over the Internet. The systems are designed for incorporation into other medical applications such as EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) including a complete re-branded doctor-to-pharmacy solution. According to a report by SureScripts (www.surescripts.com) e-prescribing has the capability of saving the health care industry over $26 billion over the next 10 years. Only six percent of physicians are e-prescribing at present so this market segment has tremendous growth potential.

A key to a successful reseller operation is to get into market segments that have a substantial growth potential and the healthcare industry is definitely in that category.

To learn more about industry trends, selecting hosting partners and how to sell effectively into these hot segments, visit and participate in Reseller Live — Wednesday, September 17, 2008, at 12:45-2:30 pm at TMC’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2008, in the LA Convention Center www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference. IT

Max Schroeder (News - Alert) is the Senior Vice President of FaxCore, Inc. (www.faxcore.com) and will also be the moderator of Reseller Live at ITEXPO West 2008.

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