HIPAA Compliance IS NOT Optional — It’s The Law
HIPAA standards require organizations to have physical, network and process security measures in place to protect health information, and provide evidence that these are standards are followed.
Health providers are moving to increased automation and computerized operations, including computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, electronic health records (EHR), and radiology, pharmacy, and laboratory systems. This makes HIPAA compliance even more important than ever.
While all of these electronic methods provide increased efficiency and mobility for covered entities and business associates, they also dramatically increase the security risks of patient healthcare data breaches.
We have developed a robust and potent HIPAA Compliance service offering, and are your trusted advisor for all things HIPAA. Consider us your shot in the arm for HIPAA Compliance success.
Failure to Conduct Regular Checkups Can be Costly
A breach usually has multiple issues and penalties add up. Organizations that handle sensitive health data can lose millions. The average global cost of a healthcare data breach is $6.45 million.
A HIPAA breach not only includes the fine, but also the cost of hiring IT specialists to investigate the breach, the cost of repairing public confidence in the medical practice, and the cost of providing credit monitoring services for patients. Insurance may not cover all of these costs, especially for small-and medium-size organizations, leading to the potential closure of smaller medical practices.
Does Your Organization Need to be HIPAA Compliant?
Covered Entities that are required to maintain HIPAA compliance:
- Hospitals
- Behavioral Health Facilities
- Diagnostic Labs
- Correctional Facilities
- Pharmacies
- Urgent Care Clinics
- Dental Offices
- Nursing Homes
Business Associates and their subcontractors that have access to protected health information, are also subject to HIPAA regulations as well:
- IT Service Providers
- Shredding Companies
- Documents Storage Companies
- Attorneys
- Accountants
- Collection Agencies
- EMR Companies
- Data Centers, Online Backup Companies, Cloud Vendors
- Insurance Agents
- Contract Transcriptionists
Avoiding Compliance Won’t Avoid Fines
The most common HIPAA violations are the failure to perform a full risk analysis, the failure to enter into a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement, and the failure to safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI).
Ignorance is not an accepted excuse. Organizations can also be fined for “willful neglect” – where they knew they had an obligation to comply but failed to take proactive measures.
Since HIPAA risk assessments can be complicated and time- consuming, it’s no wonder some providers avoid conducting a risk assessment and choose instead to take their chances.
Immunize Your Practice Against Risks
Traditionally, HIPAA compliance would involve a lot of work, including exceptional organizational skills and expertise. We now utilize a set of tools developed with the nation’s leading HIPAA authorities to create a powerful framework for performing one-time comprehensive HIPAA risk assessments, as well as our interactive practice-engaging HIPAA compliance-as-a-service offering.
Our HIPAA compliance solution enables you to diminish your exposure and provide the proper documentation to alleviate HIPAA headaches, and inoculate your practice against hefty fines.
Just What the Doctor Ordered
Our Compliance-as-a-Service offering is a comprehensive, purpose-built solution that enables us to gather, process, analyze, validate, and document information in record time.
Our HIPAA Compliance process utilizes a unique role-based architecture, which makes it possible for us to manage and coordinate the involvement of key stakeholders in your practice. Our system allows us to collect all the necessary data, analyze all the information, and provide you with customized worksheets that show you exactly where risks may be compromising your practice’s systems and how to mitigate any issues. And, best of all, the entire process is automatically tracked, and you get professionally-formatted documents at the end of the process.
Our Compliance-as-a-Service offering provides you with the necessary documentation and audit trail to prove that your practice is covered, should an audit occur.
The following steps in our HIPAA Compliance process will allow you to have peace-of-mind and sleep well at night about your practice’s IT systems, policies and procedures:
