gerri: hipaa. >> and hipaa.which is well-known. >> the trick you can't make it mandatory as condition of employment or having health insurance to do this but these are incentives. they're really going about, having a $1,000 incentive make it mandatory. >> need to describe the wellness programs a little bit because not everybody has them. we have them here. they are incentives for to you do the right thing. explain what companies are trying to get to you stop doing? >> trying to get you to stop smoking and eat healthy and cholesterol and risk factors having a heart attack. get on statins or diabetes medicines, that control chronic diseases that don't put you in the hospital later. it is in the your best interest and company's best interest to keep you healthy. gerri: important to keep you healthy. the way you get answers give you tests, medical tests. very important law and old law hipaa prevents that, right? >> well, hipaa has to maintain confidentiality. so people are saying we're worried this information might

do keeping tallies of which employees by name wrack up highested me bills is it a violation of hip hipaab site were to plush hacked e-mail with names of the person and the medical history does that violate hipaa, getting word. >> as a mom quick. >> the i would be horrified but to your point i think the explanation given, is that the company wants to defend itself from insurance companies raising prices fees on it why keeping tabs on all of these people it is horrifying makes me want to continue top stuff cash in the mattress. >> i want to stay on this a lot more coming oit on sony story leaked e-mails shows testy coroner's over buchanan sharp paint not pleased having to drove promising across other networks responding "seriously no chance, this is beyond an insult shows cinnamon carries about investment i made or entrepreneurs sounds -- >> it is right depends what is in that agreement if that you have to go on a talk and promote your -- the show -- so be it should do that it is interesting goes back to krooin liability is going to be a huge issue for all companies across the nation all o

is it primarily hipaa, is it some combination? >> yeah. if you go through the process of entering into a data use agreement with cms, you -- and you guarantee that you're going to satisfy all of the data security safeguards that they require which are serious, they will send you claims data that has a beneficiary id, that has all of the -- [inaudible] zip code of residence of the beneficiary that has the microlevel service of the cms physician public release only reports combinations of physicians and wpt codes -- cpt codes with 11 or more services provided. obviously, if you buy the micro level data, you can see all the services. but it's a major hurdle, to set up data security systems that are impenetrable and are hipaa compliant. >> and also provides the opportunity to pull together various services from different providers that a beneficiary has had. >> and you have to promise not to release anything that violates it. >> question back there. >> david -- [inaudible] national associate of acos. if the genie's now out of the bottle, from

is it the same questions or is it hipaa or a combination? >> if you go through the process of the data use agreement, and you guarantee will satisfy all the data security safeguards, they will send claims data that has beneficiary identification in the coming age, sex, zip code, for the of public release with those 11 or more. mckenzie the services. >> canada also provides that opportunity for different providers and beneficiaries. >> if sedgy is out of the bottle then what is best next for the cms data release? manchin a the modifier. and with a wish list with the final output of the of modern fire calculations that is taking a the raw data that cms just made that others have been in talking about. so medicare can measure quality and efficiency including all of the services that they ordered a just what they provide themselves. so that would be a significant step forward. >> it would be very useful but especially if they could correct the errors of the first release so the second year to make better comparisons over time. >> we have talked

it's hipaa compliant. those pictures will disappear.they're hoping to expand this to cardiac surgery first because those can be very lengthy procedures, you know, transplants and various things can be very, very, you know, troublesome to people that are waiting for their loved ones. and then expand out even more. potentially to emergency departments. so again i would look for that ease app to be hitting other hospitals next year. >> all right. dr. joe, thank you. interesting stuff. >> yes, thank you. >> we appreciate it. thank you for jingoes for fox 29 weekend. >> flu is up in penn. the virus is affecting health of the state. more than 5,000 people have gotten sick as of last week. allegheny county had the most concerned cases with more than 800 officials say most people don't get medical attention so the numbers don't show all the likely cases. flu season runs from october through may. >> there is catholic woman out in kansas city so many people are talking about. she's been ex communicated from the church because of her dream to be t

there is absolute criminal activity here, the stealing of social security numbers, the violation of hipaa, the releasing of medical information, that is a criminal activity. but most of what's been released is very elementary school, 8-year-olds saying do you like her, do you not like her? i don't hike him, he's evil. it is immature at its best. it has a salacious quality because we talk about it, and we like to see the powerful and the wealthy make fools of themselves. but i think most of us probably at some point in our lives have made fools of ourselves. [laughter] but there hasn't been anything so earth shattering z to -- as to rise to the level of the pentagon papers. gerri: this sort of is a first amendment issue, right? i would defend sony's ability to put this market out without some kind of christmas surprise, which we don't know what that is, do we? >> reporter: we don't. and it's troubling, especially if you're on the receiving end of sony, and it's important to remember three weeks into this disaster, this is a criminal event. very important stuff has been stolen, and copywrit

but it is a major hurdle to set up data security systems that are impenetrable and are hipaa compliant. >> and it provides an opportunity to pull together services from different providers. >> and you have to promise not to release anything that violates it. click back there. -- >> back there. >> if the genie is now out of the bottle, from your perspectives, what would be best next? >> paul ginsburg mentioned a physician value based modifier. i'd be curious how many people know what i'm talking about? list, it would be the raw data and the final output of the modifier calculations be made available at the physician level. i do not know if that is realistic. but that would be taking this made andcms has just doing the analysis that a lot of the other presenters have been talking about. the idea behind the payment provider is that medicare can be quality and it will be measuring efficiency, including all of the services that physicians order, not just the ones they provide themselves. that would be a significant step forward. i doubt it will happen. i think a second cross-section, as i m

health, you know, any time there's a medical information about a patient, is governed under hipaa.nfrastructure. they're governed by government regulations. any merchant that processes credit cards, it's not really governed by government at regulations, but the card associations like mastercard, visa, american express require merchants to follow certain rules or they won't be able to process credit cards. >> well that's part of the problem, though, right? kevin mitnick, we got to get everybody on the same page. >> we need better technology to help companies stop these types of threats. >> great, go develop it. we'll see you again on the show. >> okay. >>> later today, president obama is sure to take lots of questions about north korea at his end-of-the-year news conference. can you watch it right here, live, cnn, 1:30 p.m. eastern time. >>> all right, also president obama was announcing big changes to the u.s. relationship with cuba. he literally made history all by himself. now, what will it do? all right. this was unthinkable for decades, could there be a visit by a castro to the