The Datamax Thinking Blog

HIPAA was passed 20 years ago this year. It's only in the past two years that guidance on digital copiers and other office equipment has been included within the regulation.

Both the risk and the cost of data breaches in the healthcare industry are going up. Technological advances are providing valuable case-wide "interoperability" while also creating much higher risks of losses and breaches. Evolving healthcare information security regulations are creating duties for a broader scope of healthcare enterprises. At the center of the two are the health IT experts who must ensure both document security and easy accessibility by authorized users while protecting against an expanding and deepening pool of technological threats. Some of those threats are surprising:

One takes the shape of the innocuous office copier.

If you need to print confidential documents securely, pull printing can be your answer.

How often have you walked past a copier or printer's output tray and cringed to notice a confidential document sitting in plain view there?

When your business deals daily with documents that contain confidential or protected personal information (like law offices and medical professionals who need to be HIPAA compliant), you need a way to keep the documents that you need to print secure. Pull printing (often called follow me printing or secure print release) is one way to ensure that only the right people have access to those documents. 

You could end up spending more and have productivity suffer in your business if you always opt for the cheapest copier you can find.

We're all price-sensitive as we try to meet our budgets (personally or in business) – what's the best deal? Where can I get it cheaper? Is this a good price?

Too many people think that they'll save money going with the cheapest copier that they “think” might match their needs.

Sometimes, these folks even get lucky and are right (even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then); experiencing years of reliable service from the cheapest copier they could find. 

In my experience, that's the exception.

Clear communications sets expectations, leads to successful projects, and improved financial performance. Here's our communication strategy.

So you’ve bought/leased a fleet of copiers or you’ve just signed on for a managed print services contract. What now? 

You have to include your copier in your HIPAA-compliance planning. Biometrics and HID cards can be used to reduce risk of information going astray.

Twenty years have passed since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) became federal law. By now, you are probably familiar with HIPAA's requirements to protect your patients' health information and have implemented various security measures to keep that data private. But there's one area you might have overlooked in your risk analysis: the copy machine. Learn about the possible security risks posed by your office copier and ways to minimize those risks.

When asked to prioritize one capability that will be most important to marketing in the future, one-third of marketers answered: "personalization." – Source www.cmo.com

Variable Data Printing (VDP) is not a new concept. The use of the term dates back to 1969 when coined by Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, School of Print Media, at the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Though not new, VDP is very much evolving in the exploding world of content marketing and big data. This blog provides a glimpse into this evolution and offers five personalization ideas that will help your organization maximize its return on impression with VDP.

Bates Stamping can be as easy as pushing the “copy” button on your copier.

In the past, people who wanted to conduct Bates Stamping on their legal documents had to download extra software or purchase an expensive piece of equipment to do the job.

Today, however, it's as easy as walking to your copier. A dream come true for the legal industry, this revolution in Bates Stamping makes the process easier and more accessible than ever before.

Read on to learn more.

You can use a cloud service AND remain HIPAA compliant.

You have a lot of your mind when you roll into work. You're at least partly responsible for the paperwork in your medical practice – patients' personal information, records, and other documents need to be stored safely and securely. To make your life (and all that paperwork) easier, you'd love to take advantage of the latest technology. However, HIPAA regulations make you think twice before considering cost-effective solutions such as those using the cloud.

Smart law firms are using IT to improve their businesses. REALLY smart law firms can outsource at least parts of the IT needs.

Are you getting the most out of your technology spending? Does your Legal IT (including your copiers and printers) help you meet your business needs? Or, like for many law firms (and other companies), does your IT not quite get everything done for you. 

HIPAA compliance is a must for every healthcare provider. Here are the seven essential things that must be covered.

While you may think that the actual physicians and licensed medical practitioners are responsible for HIPAA compliance, office managers must also guard confidential medical information. Not only must office managers make sure that protected health information isn't accidentally disclosed, but they must also work to protect it from theft.