ADVISORY/Clinton Signs Healthcare Privacy Rule into Law, Raising Questions about Future Privacy and Protection for Confidential Health Info.

News Desks/Medical & Health Writers

ADVISORY...

--(BW HealthWire)

What: The proposed rule that suggest standards for the privacy of

individual health information and the use of electronic signatures

for health organizations was signed into law today by President

Clinton. The rule falls under the Health Insurance Portability and

Accountability Act (HIPAA), which was passed by Congress on August

21, 1996. With Clinton's signature, the rule now has the force of

law. The security and digital signatures experts at Entrust

Technologies Inc. are available to explain exactly what healthcare

organizations must do to comply with these rules, and how proven

technology can help bring these organizations into compliance with

HIPAA.

Why: Many people are concerned with the privacy and security issues

raised by the HIPAA rules. The Privacy Standards as passed today

under HIPAA apply to health plans, health care providers and

health care clearinghouses. These health organizations must have

means for identifying people who access critical health

information, must show audit trails for all logged information,

and must encrypt all patient-identifiable information before

sending it over public networks. According to Gartner Group,

public-key infrastructure (PKI) is an ideal technology for

building HIPAA compliance

Who: Entrust Technologies executives can explain the technical and

legislative issues surrounding the HIPAA rule. In addition,

Personal Path and Medtegrity are just two of the partners who can

explain how they currently use Entrust solutions for secure and

authorized access to information. Interview candidates include:

-- Brian O'Higgins, Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Technology Officer
and Founder of Entrust Technologies. Brian's credentials can be seen at:
http://www.entrust.com/invest or/brian_ohiggins.htm

-- Geoff Bibby, Director of Healthcare Strategies at Entrust Technologies

-- Tim Sipols, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Personal Path
(Please work with Entrust contacts to confirm availability)

-- Dan Nutkis, CEO, Medtegrity (Please work with Entrust contacts to confirm
availability)

Additional Information: http://www.entrust.com/products/healthcare/index.htm

About Entrust Technologies:

Entrust Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTU) is a global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business relationships by securing and managing the transactions that constitute e-business. Through the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of trusted e-business infrastructure solutions, Entrust Technologies enables customers to secure their B2B, B2C and internal enterprise transactions and communications, as well as to manage the e-business portals through which these transactions take place. Today Entrust serves more than 1,500 customers worldwide. Entrust Technologies pioneered the public-key infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificate solutions that provide security for business transactions and communications over the Internet. Entrust Technologies is based in Silicon Valley, Ottawa, Canada and Plano, Texas and has offices around the world. For additional company information please visit http://www.entrust.com.