HIPAA Compliance And Potential Risks
No one said HIPAA compliance was easy. It’s a higher level of security and data governance that healthcare organizations have to follow.
Some smaller organizations may think they don’t need to worry about cybersecurity or HIPAA compliance, because…
- They think they’re flying under the radar,
- They don’t think they have the resources to spend on better cybersecurity,
- They have a small staff that’s focused on what they believe to be more pressing matters.
However, the OCR is just as willing to investigate your minor data breach as they are major ones like Anthem’s. Fresenius Medical Center was handed a $3.5 million fine after five data breaches, each of which affected fewer than 300 patients.
Similarly, you can’t assume that you’re safe from cybercriminals either. Smaller organizations in the healthcare community aren’t flying under the radar. You’re in just as much danger as larger medical practices, or perhaps, even more so, if you don’t have the right cybersecurity measures in place.
How Can You Double-Check Your HIPAA Compliance And Potential Risks?
You are required by HIPAA to regularly revisit your HIPAA compliance policies and procedures in order to make sure they keep in line with changes to regulations, and changes within your organization.
While you could do so on your own, it’s smarter to have your IT company like Essential Solutions assess your HIPAA risk potential. This assessment should involve the following considerations:
- It should consider any and all risks to any and all PHI, in terms of its privacy, availability, and integrity. It’s important to determine and document where the data is being stored, received, maintained or transmitted.
- Potential threats need to be identified and documented, as well as their probability of occurring, and the result of their occurrence. Using this information, a theoretical level of risk needs to be determined.
- Your cybersecurity needs to be assessed and confirmed to be in line with HIPAA standards (if not stronger and more extensive).
- All information involved in and resulting from the assessment needs to be documented, and formed in an Action Plan, to address any potential noncompliance and mitigate risks.
Essential Solutions Will Help You Doublecheck Your HIPAA Compliance
Our team understands how complicated HIPAA compliance is, and that organizations of your size need to focus their available personnel on treating patients. That’s why we’ll handle your HIPAA compliance for you.
When you choose to work with us, we will:
- Conduct a risk assessment to identify gaps between your existing security measures and compliance requirements.
- Implement the proper technical safeguards to address gaps and secure electronic protected health information.
- Assist in creating the policies and procedures needed to keep your staff operating in a way that’s compliant at all times.
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