Healthcare: On the Road to HIPAA Compliance

08 Jul 2014 07:04
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All healthcare facilities are required to comply with HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance standards. This was first brought to light in 1996 and aimed to streamline the medical industry. Through this Act, streamlining is possible in the administrative level, especially in terms of procedures. It also helped in improving patient information privacy and security.

HIPAA compliance at www.acentec.com/services/hipaa-risk-assessment/ has extensive implications. It does not only cover healthcare professionals in clinics, dental practices and hospitals but also anyone who has access to PHI or personal health information. This includes those who work in contact centers, medical equipment companies, insurance firms, and outsourced medical billing service providers.

In the past, compliance to this Act was not strictly monitored. There were only a few penalties enforced on those who do not meet the different criteria in a HIPAA risk assessment. However, those days are over. These days, you can expect assessments to be several times tougher, with fines and penalties increased multiple times as well. If you are working in an organization that is required to meet HIPAA standards, there are easy ways of checking if you are right on track to being HIPAA compliant.

Getting Ready for HIPAA Compliance

1. Assign an officer to oversee HIPAA Risk Assessment compliance. The officer must have completed HIPAA compliance training. The officer must also understand his or her responsibility in enforcing HIPAA requirements and maintaining them.

2. Make sure that each and every staff member understands the provisions of HIPAA. They must also understand how the policies impact the operations of your organization. It can help to require staff members to undergo ongoing staff training that focuses on understanding HIPAA requirements. And it is important that this kind of training is made available to each and every employee. This training works best if it is customized according to the access level that the staff members have to patient information.

3. Make sure that patient information is safeguarded. Keep in mind that authorized personnel are the only ones who are allowed access to certain patient records and information. If these and other sensitive information are stored in computer systems, strict control must be observed and this is not only limited to having the latest antivirus solution installed into the computer. It is also important that particular steps are taken to regularly back up electronic data. Additional details on this are explained in the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NpTNo7GnA8.

Through following the aforementioned steps, you can be surer that your organization will pass any HIPAA audit without much trouble. Through including them in a framework for strict compliance, you can further ensure that the different requirements are met. What is important that you follow even the simplest steps so you can have the peace of mind that you are able to meet compliance standards.

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