Checklist to ensure HIPAA compliance at your practice
The medical industry has proliferated indeed with cutting-edge innovations, all the research and development going on in space, and the emergence of medical practices. The medical practices of today are reinforced with all the necessary features and facilities to help the patients get the experience they deserve. Besides, being smaller and manageable units that are driven by state-of-the-art technology, these practices are also made secure and HIPAA-compliant for the patients.
What is HIPAA Compliance?
HIPAA expanded to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which is a federal law that came into being in 1996. This law was enacted to create national standards to protect sensitive patient-specific health information from being revealed to others without the consent or knowledge of the patient.
Thus, HIPAA was passed primarily to safeguard the patient's health information and distinguish the health information of the patients as Protected Health Information (PHI). Along with that, HIPAA also ensures the lawful use and disclosure of PHI.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the regulatory body that oversees HIPAA compliance, while it is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Do you need to be HIPAA Compliant?
Recent reports reveal that the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has known over 100,000 complaints of HIPAA violations. But you don't want to be non-compliant because that can result in fines of up to $250,000!
If you are wondering whether or not you need to be HIPAA compliant, then you need to first check out the HIPAA regulation from where you can find it easily. However, we would rather not give you any trouble regarding that. This is why here we are informing you about the primary organizations that need to be HIPAA compliant always. The 2 main types of organization are:
• Covered Entities: Covered entities, as defined by the HIPAA regulation, are the organizations that create, collect, or share PHI via digital means. The healthcare organizations, which are regarded as covered entities include healthcare providers, healthcare clearinghouses, and insurance providers of health.
• Business Associates: Business associates, as defined by the HIPAA regulation, are the organizations that stumble upon PHI during their course of work, and who have already been contracted to act on behalf of a covered entity. Business Associates abound, the examples of which are numerous. Billing companies, IT companies, storage providers, practice management offices, EHR platforms, digital storage providers, third-party consultants, email hosting services, shredding companies, faxing companies, accountants and attorneys, and more.
Now, if you are a practice owner or a practice manager and you are still wondering whether you need to be HIPAA compliant, then you need not ponder any further because you essentially do need to embrace HIPAA compliance. Besides, even if you have any third-party consultants, practice management software, and more, they also need to be going by the HIPAA guidelines.
However, this would not be an issue if you have GrowPractice by your side, which is a medical office, practice management, and patient management service provider that has a HIPAA certification and goes by the HIPAA guidelines.
Besides, it is also important to know how to remain HIPAA compliant at your practice. To help you with it, we have designed a checklist.
A Smart and Convenient HIPAA Compliance Checklist for your Practice
Here is a convenient checklist that you can keep in handy to verify whether or not your practice is compliant with the HIPAA guidelines:
Stay up to date with the HIPAA guidelines
Staying up to date with the HIPAA guidelines is mandatory. This is because the HIPAA law enacted has gone through many amendments and they might be amended even during the time you are away. As per the last reports, around 36% of the providers are not aware of the updated HIPAA guidelines. Staying updated with the current set of HIPAA guidelines would help you always stay compliant and risk-free.
Ensure that your tools and software are duly updated and functioning well
Check out your tools and software at least once a week, though being more frequent than that should ideally be better. Going through your regular tools and software, and checking whether they are performing well and are updated would help you stay away from any risks to your HIPAA compliance.
Look out for any potential cybersecurity risks
Cybersecurity issues not only damage the reputation of an organization but can also cripple them against data breaches, which would, therefore, cause HIPAA compliance issues. 76.59% of all the breaches have been reported in the healthcare industry, as per the latest reports, which means that the health sector is the target.
Therefore, you should always have dedicated experts to keep a check on the computers and ensure they are out of the way of any potential cybersecurity risks.
Work with a close-knit team
Working with a close-knit team is ideal in industries like the healthcare sector, where every step is to be taken cautiously lest you should compromise the security you promise to the patients. The performance of such a team can be further bettered with medical office software solutions provided by GrowPractice.
Secure physical access at your practice
The physical access at practice should be constantly monitored. Besides, it is equally great if the physical entryway can be made secure for any possible intrusion of criminals. Such a thing can be achieved by deploying expert security personnel there.
Double-check with the handling of the PHI
PHI and how it is handled should always be laid out or the medical service providers. Protected Health Information needs always to be safeguarded from any risks, which is why such information should always be handed over to a trusted group of the medical staff at the practice.
Check PHI before sharing
The patient-sensitive information or the PHI must be checked before sharing. This is a crucial step via which you would be able to avoid sending the PHI to persons who are not authorized to handle the same, which will lead you to resist the data from being compromised.
Stop discussions outside of office premises
Discussions outside the office premises often lead to the leak of crucial information like the PHI. This should, therefore, be a strict no-no, and both the medical staff and the practices need to be careful and raise awareness about the same.
Install computers and laptops with controller access
Having controller access should be mandatory in the computers or systems that are installed in the medical offices of the providers. Such access remaining under the authority of the practices ensures that the systems are properly operated and regulated under the HIPAA guidelines.
Enforce the automatic logging-off facility
The auto log-off facility is one of the most effective additions that most organizations are currently installing to make the systems secure and compliant with numerous policies and regulations, including the HIPAA guidelines, when it comes to the healthcare industry. So, ensure that the systems in place at your practice all feature the automatic log-off facility, thereby making them abide by the HIPAA guidelines.
Switch to the cloud
Cloud technology is one of the most popular technologies that are at hand now. With such an effective technology with us, we can now back everything up in minutes, and even work in real-time on the data, while they are continuously being backed up. This cloud technology is also an effective measure that helps organizations ensure that their data is not loitering here and there, and is rather securely backed up with the appropriate authority.
Staff training is another remedy to have your practice HIPAA-compliant. Yes, it was good to see that around 56%-62% of the practice owners, managers, staff, and admins have been trained last year!
Primary Rules in the HIPAA Guidelines that you should be aware of!
A set of HIPAA rules or guidelines make up the HIPAA regulation. If you are wondering about the HIPAA guidelines, then here are the primary rules that will help you be HIPAA certification, thereby helping you stay HIPAA compliant:
• HIPAA Privacy Rule: The HIPAA Privacy Rule underlines the patients' rights to PHI and sets them all as a national standard. This rule of HIPAA guidelines is only applied in the case of covered entities and not business associates. The patient's rights to access PHI, the rights of the health care providers to deny access to the health information of the patients (PHI), the release forms' contents of Use and Disclosure HIPAA, the Notices of Privacy Practices, and more. A particular organization's HIPAA Policies and Procedures must have these regulatory standards decently documented. Besides it is also important that all the employees are trained well on these Policies and Procedures once a year, with documented attestation.
• HIPAA Security Rule: The HIPAA Security Rule underlines the secure maintenance, transmission, and handling of ePHI, and sets them as a national standard. This rule of HIPAA security is applied to both the covered entities and business associates. This is done to avoid the sharing of ePHI. The Security Rule of HIPAA states the standards for the integrity and safety of ePHI, which include physical, administrative, and technical safeguards. All of these should be verified by every healthcare provider to ensure that they are in the proper place. Besides, the particularity of the regulation should also be there in the HIPAA Policies and Procedures of the provider. At the same time, it is also important that the staff are well-trained on these Policies and Procedures once a year, with documented attestation.
• HIPAA Breach Notification Rule: The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule states what the covered entities and business associates do when a data breach occurs involving data related to PHI or ePHI and defines national standards for the same. This Rule defines what are the requirements to report breaches, which depend on the scope and size. All of the organizations should be reporting the breaches, irrespective of their to HHS OCR, however, there are specific protocols that need to be followed while doing the same, and these rules varies on the breaches and their kinds.
• HIPAA Omnibus Rule: The HIPAA Omnibus Rule is an appendix to the HIPAA regulation. This Rule was sanctioned and makes it imperative for business associates to be HIPAA compliant, along with the covered entities. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule, which mandates HIPAA compliance for business associates, also outlines the rules that govern Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). These agreements, which are known as Business Associate Agreements, can be defined as contracts that must be executed between a covered entity and business associate or between two business associates. This needs to be done before ANY PHI or ePHI can be transferred or shared.
What is the HIPAA minimum necessary rule?
The HIPAA minimum necessary rule, or the minimum necessary requirement or standard of HIPAA, holds that the covered entities must evaluate their practices and ensure proper restrictions in place that will help them restrict unnecessary and inappropriate access to PHI and the disclosure of the same.
How GrowPractice will help your practice go by the HIPAA regulation and protect HIPAA compliance!
If you have already made up your mind to reach out to GrowPractice or you are willing to contact GrowPractice to ease the patient and practice management at your practice, then it's something that will hugely benefit you. GrowPractice is certainly one of the most trusted medical software solution providers. Besides, it will also help your practice stay secure and HIPAA compliant all the while you make your practice operations hassle-free. Some of the key highlights of GrowPractice are:
• GrowPractice tools and software are HIPAA compliant
• It ensures a high level of data encryption and security for the PHI
• GrowPractice software and tools rely on the cloud technology
• Most of the data are automatically backed up
• GrowPractice ensures auto backup into EHR
• GrowPractice enables the patients to pay securely, with just a click
• It has the all-new HIPAA-compliant, two-way texting facility for the patients
• All of the GrowPractice systems are updated all around the clock
• GrowPractice software and tools receive 24x7 support
GrowPractice is even trusted by several US Federal Government agencies for its quality, effectiveness, absolute security, and support. You can try GrowPractice too!
