The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) helps safeguard all protected information of patients. There are various guidelines and requirements that are stipulated by HIPAA and these need to be fulfilled by all covered entities. The medical records of patients are stored and transmitted electronically and there are various safeguards that need to be in place to ensure compliance of HIPAA.

All the files that contain confidential information of patients will also need to be safeguarded with passwords. Most covered entities keep a log of who is accessing the information and this will help in knowing about any unauthorized access.

Top 4 Steps Of Password Regulations In HIPAA

1. As all the confidential information of patients is stored and transmitted electronically, it is important that it is password protected. This will help in preventing any unauthorized access to medical records of patients.

2. All employees who will have access to the confidential information of patients will need to be trained about the importance of password protecting all documents that are stored electronically. If different employees will be accessing the records, it is advisable to have different passwords so that no one is aware about the other person’s password. This will help in preventing unauthorized access.

3. The passwords that are used to protect these documents should be strong. It would be advisable to use a combination of alphabets, numeric and special characters in the password. This will ensure that they cannot be tampered with easily.

4. In the initial stages of password allocation it is generated automatically and after this process is completed, employees will be able to assign passwords on their own. There are usually no specific requirements regarding the length of the password and this can vary as per the preference of the employee.

5. It would also be advisable to change the password of the medical records periodically. Most covered entities have policies in place that stipulate that the password needs to be changed every 90 or 120 days. The passwords can be changed earlier than this too depending on the policy of the covered entities regarding this.

It is important that all covered entities keep the passwords secure. They should be accessible only to people who are authorized to have access to these medical records. You should also take care not to display them openly so that anyone can get access to them.

The password should not be written in any place. This will help in preventing any unauthorized access to protected information of patients. These safeguards will ensure that the medical records of patients are kept safe. If these records are not kept safe they can be misused for commercial purposes.

If the various rules and regulations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are not fulfilled with regard to safeguard of confidential information, it can lead to various penalties. The penalties can vary from civil to criminal depending on the extent and nature of the violations. This can include fines or imprisonment or both if the records are not secured with good passwords.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website http://www.hipaaexams.com/hipaa-training.html

Author Bio: For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website.

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: health care organizations ,HIPAA,Health Insurance ,HIPAA Compliant,HIPAA Privacy Rule