HIPAA Tip: Embrace HIPAA Compliance
Why are we fighting or pushing back on HIPAA compliance? Are we talking about the pain/pleasure principle originated by Sigmund Freud, that human behavior is primarily driven by the subconscious desire to seek instant gratification (pleasure) and avoid discomfort or pain? If that’s your organization’s position, think of the following:
- Conducting/completing the annual Security Risk Analysis provides the baseline for risks and vulnerabilities to the electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) and Protected Health Information (PHI) the organization has. How can we better secure the ePHI/PHI? Look at basics: lengthening passwords, adding multi-factor authentication for remote access to EMRs, servers, cloud-based software solutions containing ePHI and sensitive data.
- Training staff on cybersecurity and security awareness can be fun but also offers your staff a valuable education, giving them all the tips they need when logging into their own personal emails, accounts, texts – reminding them what NOT to do when asked for personal information or worse, requests to log into their own accounts.
- Executing required HIPAA policies and procedures, presenting them to staff and having them acknowledge the organization’s expectations of them while/when working in a healthcare environment. This ensures they have an understanding of their performance obligations, along with reminding them that they are patients too and would want their medical data treated with the same levels of privacy and security.
Compliance Is Ongoing
HIPAA compliance isn’t a one-time checklist. It’s ongoing, programmatic in nature, and requires demonstrated reasonable diligence to stay in good standing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Anatomy IT can provide you peace of mind with our expert HIPAA compliance services. To learn more, contact us here.
