The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA as it is more commonly known, was passed in 1996 to restructure the health care industry by streamlining administrative procedures and increasing the privacy and security of patient information. HIPAA requirements have far-reaching implications, not only for health care professionals in hospitals HIPAA Compliance Service, clinics and dental practices, but also for providers who have access to personal health information like call center agents, medical equipment providers and insurance staff. For many years, enforcement of the legislation has not been strict, with few penalties imposed on those companies who do not meet HIPAA privacy and security requirements for handling patient data. That has been slowly changing however, and there have been considerably tougher audits and bigger fines imposed on those companies that fall within the ambit of the HIPAA legislation. If you work in an environment where there is a requirement to understand HIPAA guidelines and policies, then here are 3 ways to quickly get on the right track to HIPAA compliance.
3 Steps to HIPAA Compliance
- Assign a HIPAA Compliance Officer. This person should complete a HIPAA compliance training course and be responsible for maintaining and enforcing HIPAA requirements.
- Ensure that all staff members understand the HIPAA provisions and policies as they impact on your company. Ongoing staff training on HIPAA requirements should be made available to all employees. The training should be customized, depending on the level of access the staff member has to patient data.
- Ensure that all patient data is safeguarded. Only authorised personnel should be allowed to access information and records. Computer systems that contain sensitive data should be strictly controlled and loaded with up-to-date antivirus software. Electronic data should be regularly backed up.
If you follow these steps it will put in place the framework for ensuring that all HIPAA requirements are met. The most important part of the process is selecting the HIPAA Compliance Officer and ensuring that he or she receives the best HIPAA requirements training. Once that is completed the person must be prepared to take responsibility for putting in place all the key organizational HIPAA requirements, from the training of staff and establishing procedures for security and privacy management of patient data to ensuring that your computer systems are secure and that data is regularly backed up. If HIPAA compliance training is important to your company, then following these simple steps will give you a framework for equipping your employees with all the information they need comply with HIPAA requirements.