5 Ways CIOs Need to Prepare for Obamacare

2. Revisit HIPAA SecuritySecurity ComplianceCompliance Issues Alles zu Compliance auf CIO.de Alles zu Security auf CIO.de

Every IT executive in the healthcare field already knows about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). When enrollment starts, new opportunities for data breaches that violate HIPAA will emerge as well. What's more, the law, first enacted in 1996, has been updated for the digital information age to increase the financial penalties for an entity that suffers a data breach.

Les Levinson, the chair of the healthcare practice at the New York law firm Edwards Wildman Palmer, points to one specific provision regarding employee wellness programs. IT may be called on to manage the security between employer-sponsored health insurance and third-party wellness program providers. If that third party creates, receives, stores, transmits or otherwise possesses personal health information, then it's liable under HIPAA - so make sure it's ready, willing and able to take HIPAA seriously.

3. Improve Payroll Systems to Track Actual Hours Worked

By 2015, Obamacare legislation will require that an employer "prove" whether someone is full-time - that is, works 30 hours or more per week. Diane Lukin, an attorney at Arnall Golden Gregory in Atlanta, says any company with more than 50 employees will need a way to track hours.