HIPAA TIP: HIPAA Compliance
Why is this such a mystery for many healthcare companies? And why do so many shy away from improving the organization’s security posture?
HIPAA Compliance is about aligning values associated with security, privacy, and ethical requirements for protecting patients’ medical information, according to the HIPAA Rules: Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification. This ensures the organization is held accountable for its actions and operates within regulatory boundaries.
Compliance provides a framework for identifying and mitigating risks. Without this an organization is blind to where threats and vulnerabilities are, and leaving itself wide open for a potential security incident or worse, a breach of Protected Health Information.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule addresses the risk of PHI being compromised or used for identity theft, focusing on protecting the privacy of PHI, and giving patients more control over their health information.
The HIPAA Security Rule outlines the regulations for protecting ePHI through Administrative, Physical and Technical Safeguards, to ensure the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of ePHI.
The Breach Notification Rule defines steps an organization must take when a breach of PHI occurs. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must be informed as soon as possible in the event of a breach affecting more than 500 patients and all individuals must be notified within 60 days of the discovery of the breach. In cases involving fewer than 500 individuals, patients still need to be contacted within the 60 days, and the organization must submit a breach notification letter to the secretary of HHS by the end of the calendar year.
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.