B.I.G. Consultants

Margret Amatayakul, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, CPEHR, CPHIE, CPHIT, FHIMSS
BIG Senior Consultant and Project Manager

Margret Amatayakul is a health information management professional with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including providing medical record department services, health informatics education, association management and advocacy, and information systems consulting. During her extensive career, Margret has been actively engaged in many of the major health informatics standards development organizations, has led industry organizations and consortia in contributing to the government regulatory process relative to HIPAA, and has extensive experience in implementing and monitoring regulatory, accrediting, and industry practice compliance.

Margret Amatayakul received her Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Record Administration from the University of Illinois at the Medical Center and Masters in Business Administration degree, with concentrations in Finance and Marketing, from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a current credential (RHIA) in Health Information Management and is a Fellow in the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (FHIMSS).

Margret is an active member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS), and the standards development organization - ASTM. She has served on the board of directors of the Healthcare Open Systems and Trials (HOST), American National Standards Institute Healthcare Informatics Standards Board (ANSI HISB), and the Computer-based Patient Record Institute (CPRI).

She founded and served as the Executive Director of the Computer-based Patient Record Institute from 1992 through 1997. She has also held the position of Associate Executive Director of the AHIMA, was an Associate Professor of Health Information Management at the University of Illinois, and was the Director of Medical Record Services at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary. She is a clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois, is a visiting professor at Kuwait University, and adjunct faculty at the College of St. Scholastica.

Widely quoted and sought after as a speaker on computer-based patient record (CPR) systems, Margret has published extensively, serves on several editorial review boards, and is the recipient of the Professional Achievement Award from the American Health Information Management Association, the Professional Achievement, Literary, and Distinguished Service awards from the Illinois Health Information Management Association, the Information Systems Award from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and the Excalibur Award for Teaching Excellence from the Student Council of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

HIPAA Specific Experience

Services:

• Provide awareness training on HIPAA administrative simplification requirements and building the business case for early impact analysis, solution design, implementation planning, and monitor development.
• Assess security policies and procedures for compliance with HIPAA requirements and consistency with corporate culture.
• Conduct security policy audits for consistency with JCAHO and HIPAA security requirements.
• Prepare organizations for security risk analysis to establish a strategic plan for complying with HIPAA requirements.
• Analyze information flow and systems to protect data integrity.
• Review vendor offerings for enabling security compliance within a healthcare framework of confidentiality and availability.
• Orient security vendors to healthcare issues and concerns relative to compliance with HIPAA requirements.
• Orient healthcare information systems vendors, recruiters, payers, and others to HIPAA legislation, current proposed HIPAA regulations, and impact of HIPAA on their business.

Standards Development:

• National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS), under contract to draft the report on recommendations and legislative proposals for the adoption of HIPAA uniform data standards for patient medical record information, 1999 to present.
• American National Standards Institute, Healthcare Informatics Standards Board (HISB), Past Board Member and Current Observer
• ASTM E31 Committee on Healthcare Informatics: current chair, Subcommittee on EHR System Functionality; member, Subcommittee on Privacy, Confidentiality, and Access; member, Subcommittee on Data and System Security for Health Information; member, Subcommittee on EHR Content and Structure
• Computer-based Patient Record Institute (CPRI) - former Executive Director leading efforts in security guideline development, CPR concept modeling, terminology standards coordination, and CPR critical success factors
• Health Level Seven, past interim co-chair, SIGMPI
• WEDI HIPAA Security Implementation Guideline Development Track Leader, 1999 to present.
• WEDI Policy Advisory Group on HIPAA Privacy, drafting comments letter to HHS on HIPAA Privacy NPRM, 1999 to present.
• Work Group on Computerization of Patient Records, American Hospital Association, "Toward a National Health Information Infrastructure," Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, April 1993.

Presentations and Publications:

• Amatayakul, M., "The Interdependence of Privacy, Technology and Compliance", October 17, 2000, First National HIPAA Summit, Washington, D.C
• Amatayakul, M. and Lazarus, Steven S., "Four Steps to HIPAA Success: Improved Cash Flow and Increased Patient Satisfaction", October 15, 2000, MGMA 74th Annual Conference.
• Amatayakul, M., "Nuts and Bolts of Data Sets/Electronic Records", WEDI 2000 National Conference, March 21-32, 2000, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Amatayakul, M. and Lazarus, Steven S., "The HIPAA and E-Health Trains Have Left the Station: Are you Aboard?", Group Practice Journal, January 2000.
• Amatayakul, M. "The Latest Word on HIPAA Requirements for Security and Privacy," MD Computing, November/December 1999, Vol. 16, No. 6.
• Cohen, MR and M Amatayakul. "A Business Case for HIPAA and E-Commerce, First Illinois Speaks, A Newsletter from HFMA's First Illinois Chapter, September 1999, pp. 8-9.
• "HIPAA: Understanding Changes in the Health Care Market," Euclid Managers Legislative Review Conference, September 28, 1999.
• "HIPAA Primer for Healthcare IT Recruiters," Hersher Associates, September 22, 1999.
• "Creating Information Security Policies and Procedures," HealthSec '99, MIS Training Institute, September 15, 1999.
• Meeting the Privacy Challenges in the Information Age," American Association of Health Plans, San Francisco, June 22, 1999.
• "A Business Case for Implementing HIPAA Security Requirements: A Practical Guide," Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR), Orlando, May 5, 1999.
• Computer-based Patient Record Institute, "Chapter Three, Section 5.0, Standards, Processes and Organizations: Setting Standards in Health Care Information," CPRI Toolkit: Managing Information Security in Healthcare, Bethesda, MD: CPRI, February 1, 1999.
• "Enhanced Social Security Number Proposal for Unique Individual Identifier, as Proposed by the Computer-based patient Record Institute" Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR), San Antonio, TX, May 14, 1998.
• "Proposal for Unique Health Identifier for Individuals" ANSI Healthcare Informatics Standards Board, Scottsdale, AZ, November 21, 1997.
• "Security Barriers to Effective use of Internet Technologies: A Policy Discussion" Center for Healthcare Information Management (CHIM), Phoenix, AZ, November 21, 1997.
• Unique Health Identifier for Individuals" Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR), Nashville, TN, May 2, 1997.