In the healthcare industry, when working on patient bills and crucial data, HIPAA is a regulation that ensures you are making safe use of a patient’s property. Earlier, patient’s data was at great risk when they used to get treated at hospitals. Unreliable healthcare facilities would just keep their sensitive data in risky systems and it would leak, resulting in patients losing financial resources. But now due to the HIPAA compliance checklist, you can ensure your health services are safe and sound.
Today, if you want to keep running your healthcare facility, then complying with HIPAA is an essential part. These regulations ensure your services are free from errors and patient data is confidential with you. Any violation of these rules may result in severe consequences, so you must know what to do to keep HIPAA handlers happy.
Let’s provide a protective layer to your facility and discover the ultimate HIPAA compliance checklist that will serve as a guide for your health records protection approach.
Understanding HIPAA Rules
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a set of healthcare guidelines that provides a roadmap to secure services. With this rule, patients trust you with their data and compliance shows your commitment to patient security. HIPAA sets your responsibilities as a data holder, to keep it protected in electronic health records.
In general, the HIPAA compliance checklist is based on 5 rules under which different guidelines fall. Let’s find out what they want you to focus on:
Rule #1: Privacy Rule
The Privacy Rule establishes guidelines for safeguarding patient medical records and other private health information, guaranteeing its privacy, and limiting its disclosure without their consent.
Rule #2: Security Rule
The Security Rule lays out specifications for protecting electronic health information (ePHI), including tangible security measures to ensure the information’s availability, confidentiality, and integrity.
Rule #3: Breach Notification Rule
In order to ensure openness and quick action in the event of data breach, this rule requires covered entities to notify the affected individuals, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and, in a few cases, the media.
Rule #4: Enforcement Rule
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will investigate complaints and take enforcement action to address violations. The Enforcement Rule describes the processes and sanctions for enforcing HIPAA compliance.
Rule #5: Omnibus Rule
The Omnibus Rule went into effect in 2013. It brought about updates and modifications to the HIPAA regulations. This includes modifications to the obligations of business associates, the requirements for breach notification, and the extension of HIPAA’s reach to include subcontractors of business associates.
HIPAA Compliance Checklist: 8 Steps To Compliance
Now let’s move towards the interesting part and see the footpaths you have to follow to make your healthcare facility and patient’s data protected. So these steps are your ticket to HIPAA compliance and you will end up being a compliant facility who knows how to protect their patient’s information and crucial records.
Step 1: Thoroughly Understand HIPAA’s 5 Rules
First and foremost, you must be aware of what HIPAA wants you to do. Read all the 5 rules carefully and extract the implementation you have to make in your facility. These rules will serve as a foundation for the HIPAA compliance checklist.
Step 2: Find Out The Rules Applicable To Your Facility
Since healthcare is a huge industry, there are healthcare facilities as well as many health-related businesses functioning. Here you have to identify your service area and then find out what rules apply to your health organization. This way you will better create a compliance strategy and benchmark all of them to follow the rules.
Step 3: Identify Crucial Data
Deeply review all the data and information you have about your patients and find out which one is more sensitive and needs proper protection. Clarify PHI and non-PHI data. PHI is the identifiable health data of individuals, it requires the utmost level of protection according to HIPAA. So once you find protection criteria, start developing the strategies now.
Step 4: Perform A Risk Analysis
Then it is time to conduct a detailed analysis of the data at hand. Find out what are the security threats you are facing and how they can negatively impact your patient’s PHI data. Identify potential internal and external protection dangers and keep them all in your target.
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Step 5: Establish Accountability In Your Compliance Strategy
When you know you have to work towards security threats, set clear goals, and provide accountability to each target. This will ensure proper monitoring and enable you to track the status of achieved goals. It ensures your efforts are not going in vain and you are getting results out of your input.
Step 6: Avoid Violations
Utilize the capabilities of robust privacy and cybersecurity advances and keep your data protected by following the HIPAA compliance checklist. During this process, you not only have to follow the rules but also avoid some prohibited practices, which we will discuss later. Provide enough security training to your staff as well so that they remain aware of the updated HIPAA compliance rules.
Step 7: Keep Detailed Documentation
Only making an imaginary strategy is not enough when it comes to HIPAA. You must document your action plan, data security threats, and response to non-compliant events. This paper’s information will serve as a valuable tool during audits and healthcare facilities’ future planning.
Step 8: Report Security Incidents ASAP
You must have a security plan at hand just in case of potential data breaches. If unfortunately it happens, take an immediate step and ensure the protection of the remaining data. Inform affected individuals and regulatory authorities about the incident. They have better plans to deal with this kind of situation. All you have to do is be ready to encounter such an issue and contact regulatory authorities ASAP.
Things To Avoid During Compliance
Just like you have a HIPAA compliance checklist as a list of things to follow, there are certain steps that could damage your healthcare facility or even your patient’s secure data as well. Knowing don’ts of HIPAA rules is crucial here to not get yourself in trouble. Here we have collected some points you must pay attention to during compliance.
- Neglecting routine risk assessments
- Absence of HIPAA training for staff
- Inadequate data security protocols
- Disregarding the need to notify breaches
- Unauthorized PHI sharing
- Not keeping an eye on facility stakeholders
- Neglecting the rights of patients
- Inadequate records of compliance initiatives
- Not paying attention to the modifications and updates of HIPAA rules
Protecting Patient Data & Trust
As a healthcare facility conducting medical billing and coding on a regular basis, having this HIPAA compliance checklist will serve as a life savior. If you don’t follow these steps then you will lose trust in front of your patients as well as regulatory authorities might take a legal step towards your facility.
So make sure you fulfill the security requirements, are updated with the latest compliance rules, and take enough steps to follow these rules.