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Article: Use of electronic signatures: past and present. (Digital Perspectives).
- Article from:
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Article date:
- June 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Healthcare Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The healthcare industry could achieve greater convenience and efficiency by adopting a national standard regarding the use of electronic signatures. As a term, "electronic signatures" refers to any electronic means to indicate consent to the content of a transaction (eg, handwritten signatures that are recorded electronically or digital signatures). The time is ripe for creation of a national electronic-signature standard. Many vendors already require that correspondence be in electronic form and have received support from state contract law that signatures need not be handwritten.
Unfortunately HHS regulators still have not finalized the 1998 proposed rule that ...