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ALI PABRAI, LEADING INFORMATION SECURITY AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE EXPERT, TO BE A FEATURED KEYNOTE PRESENTER AT LEADERSHIP SUMMIT ON HITECH/HIPAA COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT  

With new standards ahead and compliance deadlines looming, Pabrai to provide solutions for exposing risk and maintaining compliance with ARRA, HIPAA and health reformat Nov. 9-10 forum in Alexandria, Va. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., – SEPTEMBER 25, 2009 – The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit on HITECH and HIPAA Compliance Management is pleased to announce Ali Pabrai, CEO of ecfirst and the HIPAA Academy and America’s leading compliance and cyber security expert, will be a featured keynote presenter at the two-day summit to offer his unique expertise in the field of security and compliance of medical data.  

The Leadership Summit on HITCH and HIPAA Compliance Management, to be held November 8 and 9 in Alexandria, Va., arrives this fall as current and future provisions of the HITECH Act are set to be released.. By now, providers are already facing strategic and tactical HIT management decisions.  

The summit offers attendees the opportunity to shield their organizations from risk and liability by presenting strategic frameworks for senior-level executives with tactical solutions for IT and operations teams and learn solutions on how to expose risk, minimize liability and maintain compliance in an environment of continual “HIT change.” 

Mr. Pabrai will lend his unique expertise on the topics as CEO of ecfirst, which has served over 1400 clients worldwide in the areas of compliance, security and professional services. It operates the HIPAA Academy, a HIPAA consulting, training and certification firm that introduced the industry’s first Managed Compliance Services Program for HIPAA and HITECH compliance.  

“The risk to medical records is rising and the consequences of not taking reasonable and appropriate steps to protect this information are not insignificant, especially with current enforcement actions and associated penalties. Further, today’s infrastructure is just too vulnerable and introduces a serious risk to the health care organization”, says cyber security and compliance expert, Ali Pabrai, CISSP (ISSAP, ISSMP), CEO of ecfirst, and member of the FBI InfraGard.

Mr. Pabrai will be featured in two sessions on Monday, November 9. The first, “Examining the New HITECH Requirements and the Current Act Provisions: ARRA 2009 Mandates and Provisions” will address:

• HIT updates from the Hill: Analyzing reform's impact on mandatory integration of increased data privacy and security efforts
• Examining breach notification enforcement philosophy and recent FTC rulings
• Updates to HITECH provisions and projections for 2010 and a look at the privacy and security component of meaningful use
• Analyzing the privacy and security framework for receiving Medicare and Medicaid dollars: Going beyond HIPAA for the recipient of federal funds

• Examining the emerging liability for HIT data breach: Solutions for identifying, tracking, fixing and reporting a breach
• Breach notification: #1 item that providers need to understand
• Lessons learned from organizational breaches and best practices for organizational recovery

About the World Health Care Congress Leadership Summits

The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit Series addresses the most cutting edge issues for health care executives across a wide range of industry sectors. Designed to expand on topics discussed at invitation-only summits during the World Health Care Congress, this series offers new perspectives on established methodologies, and details solutions to foster innovation and change. 

About ecfirst and the HIPAA Academy

ecfirst, an Inc. 500 business (2004), has served over 1400 clients worldwide in the areas of compliance (HIPAA, HITECH, ISO 27000, PCI DSS and State mandates), security and professional services. ecfirst delivers deep expertise with its full suite of services that include Compliance Auditing, Contingency Planning & Business Impact Analysis (BIA), Vulnerability Assessments, our industry-unique Managed Compliance Program, Single Sign-On analysis and implementation, IT Project Management, and general security and IT infrastructure solutions.  

The HIPAA Academy, the gold standard for HIPAA consulting, training and certification, introduced the industry's first Managed Compliance Services Program for HIPAA - a 36-month, budget friendly, fixed price offering to achieve and maintain complete HIPAA Security compliance. The HIPAA Academy's training program is exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association (AHA). The HIPAA Academy is a division of ecfirst. More details are available at www.ecfirst.com or at www.HIPAAAcademy.net.