AmeriHealth Administrators has installed a product that allows you to obtain secured messages. While this process requires some extra steps, we are making every effort to ensure that there is no significant disruption to your communications. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI).

Here are some answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

I just received a notice in my inbox saying AmeriHealth Administrators has a secure e-mail waiting for me. What does this mean?
When a secure message is sent to you from AmeriHealth Administrators, it will not appear in your inbox. Instead, you will receive a message within an e-mail informing you that AmeriHealth Administrators has a secure e-mail waiting for you. The e-mail will contain a link. When you click on that link, your browser will connect you with Secure E-mail, and you will be able to pick up your e-mail message.

Why is AmeriHealth Administrators securing e-mail?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that covered entities such as AmeriHealth Administrators take additional measures to protect the privacy and security of PHI, which is information - such as name, address or social security number - that identifies a person in relation to their health status or health information. Prior to the HIPAA regulation, IBC instituted technical controls and business practices designed to protect PHI.

How does AmeriHealth Administrators plan to secure, or encrypt, email?
AmeriHealth Administrators has installed hardware and software that saves e-mail containing PHI on a secure server. When the recipient retrieves the message, he or she is communicating through a secure browser. That way the message never passes through the public, unsecured Internet.

What does encryption mean?
Encryption is an electronic means of protecting a communication by altering it so that it is unintelligible to unauthorized parties. A message is encrypted by software that "encodes" the message, or "wraps" it in information so that only the designated recipient can open (or "decode") it.

What do I do if I forget my Secure E-mail password?
You have two options.

AmeriHealth Administrators used to send documents protected by passwords. Do I still have to get a password from the sender?
No. The new process makes that unnecessary, unless you don’t have access to a browser and the Internet. If that is the case, continue to password-protect documents as you have in the past.

What kind of browser do I need to use? Are there other technical requirements?

To access Secure E-mail, you will need:

a.	An e-mail client (application) such as Outlook
b.	A browser such as Internet Explorer
c.	A connection to the Internet

E-mail Applications
You will need an e-mail application to receive the Secure E-mail notification message telling you that a secure e-mail is waiting for you. Any e-mail application can be used. Most of the time after the first time you will access Secure E-mail through your browser window.

Browsers
Secure e-mail supports the following versions of the most commonly used browsers:

Internet Service Providers
Secure E-mail will work through most Internet Service Providers, including America Online.

Firewalls
To date, there have been no issues regarding access to Secure E-mail through a corporate firewall.

Operating systems
Secure E-mail requires the following desktop operating systems for browsers:

• Windows 98, ME, NT 4 Workstation, 2000 Professional, XP Home Edition or Pro Edition
• Solaris 8
• Macintosh 9.x

How can I tell my browser is secure?
If you look in the lower right-hand corner of your browser window, you should see a small image of a lock. If it is there and appears to be "locked", your browser is secure.

Can I securely respond to encrypted e-mail sent to me?
Yes. When you receive a secured message from AmeriHealth Administrators, you simply need to press the "Reply" button to respond to the sender. Your message will be secure, but it is important to note that if you save it to your desktop or forward it, it may no longer be secure.

Does it affect outbound e-mail, inbound e-mail or both?
Only e-mail containing PHI and sent out from AmeriHealth Administrators will be encrypted. The security of inbound e-mail is up to the sender, and AmeriHealth Administrators doesn’t not need to make sure incoming e-mail containing PHI is sent securely.

If I have anti-virus software installed on my PC and I try to save a secure e-mail and/or attachments, will the anti-virus software scan them for viruses?
Only if you tell it to do so in your settings or preferences.

What should I do when I'm asked to click a 'yes' box about trusting Tumbleweed and allowing it to install software?
Click the ‘yes’ button. Tumbleweed is the company that provides the Secure E-mail software. You need to install it to view the secure e-mail.

When I save an attachment or close a message, the whole window closes and I have to login again. How can I avoid this?
Unfortunately, this happens when using certain versions of browsers to access Secure E-mail. See the technical requirements section above.

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