{"id":12658,"date":"2020-05-22T05:39:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T09:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/?p=12658"},"modified":"2022-06-21T08:04:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T12:04:28","slug":"how-to-avoid-the-devastating-consequences-of-hipaa-noncompliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/patient-identification\/how-to-avoid-the-devastating-consequences-of-hipaa-noncompliance\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid the devastating consequences of HIPAA noncompliance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a security rule that was established in 1996 for protecting the personal<\/span> health<\/span><\/a> information of individuals electronically. Some of these are lab results, medical bills, health history, and other health information that are easily identifiable. This information is established, maintained, and used by some entities such as healthcare clearinghouses, health plans, and healthcare providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

From 1996 till date, many companies have been fined and punished for HIPAA breaches. Irrespective of the size of the company, whenever there is a HIPAA breach, there usually is a fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Requirements of the HIPAA Initiative<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are 3 major requirements of the HIPAA initiative. The safeguards and controls by companies <\/span>compliant with the HIPAA<\/span><\/a> are so that they can meet all 3 requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    The Privacy Rule<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The major function of HIPAA is to make sure that personal health information is kept private. The first requirement for HIPAA is the privacy rule. This rule sets the standards that are used for the protection of medical records and the different types of personal health information. It also sets all conditions and limits for disclosing personal health information without authorization from the patient. With this rule, the patients have a right to hold a sample of their medical records and also ask for corrections to be made to their personal health information if the needs be.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    1. \n

      The Security Rule<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      For every business that the HIPAA initiative concerns, there has to be established security protocols and standards for the protection of electronic personal health information (ePHI). These protocols are used for all ePHI that\u2019s either created, maintained, received, or used by the company and all their business associates. According to some OTR guidelines on the<\/span> write my thesis<\/span><\/a> platform, in order to ensure the security, integrity, and confidentiality of the personal health information, there has to be administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are put in place. This is what the security rule is all about.<\/span><\/p>\n

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      1. \n

        Notification When the Protected Health Information is Breached<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The reason for the many safeguards that the security rule dictates is to make sure that these companies are able to avoid security breaches. But in a case where an organization that\u2019s compliant with HIPAA is breached, there are a number of parties that they have to inform. These include the media, some concerned individuals, and depending on the size and type of breach, the Secretary of breaches of unsecured information.<\/span><\/p>\n

        According to the OCR, it defines a breach in an article on the<\/span> best writing service<\/span><\/a>, as a disclosure or impermissible use which compromises the privacy or security of the PHI in accordance with the privacy rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Keeping up with the HIPAA and being compliant is very important for companies that are concerned with the protection of health information. Although this can be challenging, software like HIPAA Ready can be useful. With this compliance software, you can easily customize your policies and procedure to align with the HIPAA policies for your organization. It also has other features that allow you to create a digital checklist for your tasks, as well as train your employees with the HIPAA training courses following a training schedule. This platform is very interactive, has secure access management, and allows you to comply with HIPAA efficiently.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Where Companies Fail with HIPAA Compliance<\/span><\/h2>\n

        Failing to comply with HIPAA is basically a failure with the security rule of the HIPAA initiative. This security rule has 3 different parts; the administrative safeguards, physical safeguards, and the technical safeguards. All three safeguards have their individual specifications sets which are addressable or required.<\/span><\/p>\n

        It\u2019s important to know that an addressable specification is not a free ride for you to ignore. It only infers that you can be flexible when implementing it, but it shouldn\u2019t be ignored. For instance, there might be a safeguard that does not work well with your organization and isn\u2019t right to implement. In this case, you\u2019ll have to look for an alternative specification or you don\u2019t implement it. But it shouldn\u2019t be that you totally ignored it because the decision to not implement it has to be documented and you must be able to explain that decision during an audit. This is where companies start to have compliance issues with HIPAA.<\/span><\/p>\n

        The three safeguards which can cause HIPAA compliance issues for companies are explained below.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Technical Safeguards<\/span><\/h3>\n

        This safeguard deals with the technology that is used in protecting and accessing electronically protected<\/span> health<\/span><\/a> information. In order to implement these safeguards, companies choose the mechanisms that are best for them except the encryption of the ePHI because all of it, transmitted or stored, has to be encrypted to the standards of NIST immediately when it\u2019s out of your internal servers. When companies fail with this, they fail to comply with the HIPAA directives.<\/span><\/p>\n

        According to these safeguards, the covered entities (companies) have to:<\/span><\/p>\n