Managing Your Practice’s Risk with HIPAA
There is a lot to unpack with HIPAA law. It may seem like more work than it’s worth, but unfortunately, it needs to be addressed. HIPAA isn’t all bad. Did you know HIPAA can help you manage your risk in several ways?
- HIPAA Security Risk Assessments limit the likelihood of hacking incidents
- Policies and procedures limit the risk of improper use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI)
- Business associate agreements limit liability when your business associate violates HIPAA
- Implementing a HIPAA compliance program reduces the risk of fines
HIPAA Security Risk Assessments and Hacking
HIPAA Security Risk Assessments (SRAs) are essential to improving your practice’s cybersecurity practices. While SRAs are an annual HIPAA requirement, there are other reasons to conduct yours.
A risk assessment measures your current security practices against HIPAA standards. Once completed, deficiencies in your security are identified, enabling you to use this information to improve your security.
Identifying your weaknesses is essential to prevent hacking incidents. By doing so, you can better prepare your practice by implementing additional security measures to prevent an incident from occurring. This is referred to as implementing corrective actions.
Policies and Procedures and Use and Disclosure of PHI
Policies and procedures provide guidelines for properly using and disclosing protected health information by your practice and staff. A significant number of healthcare breaches occur because healthcare workers are unaware of how PHI should be shared. By clearly outlining how your practice uses and discloses PHI, and having policies and procedures to limit PHI access, the likelihood of “insider breaches” reduces dramatically.
Business Associate Agreements and HIPAA Violations
Business associate agreements (BAAs) are an integral part of HIPAA. Your practice must have signed BAAs with each of your business associate vendors. A BAA is a legal contract that states that each signing party is HIPAA compliant, and will maintain their compliance. A BAA also limits your practice’s liability if your business associate is breached.
HIPAA Compliance Program and Fines
Implementing an effective HIPAA compliance program is the best way to manage your risk. Your program should include security risk assessments, remediation, policies and procedures, and business associate agreements. It should also include employee training and incident management.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigates healthcare organizations’ HIPAA compliance. These investigations usually occur as the result of a breach or patient complaint. When the OCR finds an organization’s compliance program lacking, the organization may be subject to costly fines.
To protect your dental practice from fines, you must ensure that you meet each of HIPAA’s requirements.
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