Under the HIPAA regulations, the College serves as a Business Associate (BA) to assist you with approvals and quality improvement efforts for your cancer program. To accomplish these tasks, we must enter into BA Agreements with all CoC-approved cancer programs. Before any cancer program can schedule a survey and before data can be accepted by the NCDB, a signed BA Agreement must be in place.

The BA Agreement specifically addresses the following issues:

• Data confidentiality
• Systems in place to safeguard protected health information within the CoC's NCDB
• The survey process and surveyors associated with the Approvals Program

The CoC automatically e-mails a unique User ID and Password to the cancer registrar, cancer committee chair, and cancer liaison physician at each CoC-approved cancer program. These eligible individuals can simply log on to CoC Datalinks with the ID and Password to review and accept the BA Agreement. If you have any questions regarding HIPAA or the BA Agreement, please contact Asa Carter at acarter@facs.org or call 312-202-5180.

Revised August 13, 2004

Data Confidentialty