For healthcare organizations the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is not an option. Every covered entity is bound under the HIPAA regulations.

All the dealings of electronic patient health information come under the HIPAA security rule. The security rule is technical and is a compilation of certain best practices and standards of information technology.

Below are 5 important things about the HIPAA security rule you must know.

– Encryption is good: Encryption provides safety in case of security breach. It is not a direct requirement of the security rule. Encryption makes sure you are not held responsible for any electronic patient information present on laptops, desktop and other portable devices. For example, if an encrypted device with electronic protected patient information (ePHI) is stolen, then the healthcare provider is not required to report the incident. The encryption password must be strong and not broadcasted.

– Risk assessment is necessary: A risk assessment is needed to understand how the ePHI is protected and to determine if any additional safeguards are needed. The HIPAA Security Rule is based on a proper risk assessment. The results of the Risk Assessment provide information about the discrepancies in the ePHI and how they can be solved.

– All employees must be trained about HIPAA Security: The HIPAA Security Rule requires the covered entities to provide security training to all their employees. This training is compulsory. Frequent security reminders are also given to the employees after training to maintain awareness about efficient protection of ePHI.

– Written procedures and policies are mandatory: The HIPAA Security Rule mandates all covered entities to maintain written procedures and policies about the ePHI protection. Once documented, the procedures and policies must be distributed to all departments of the organization and implemented by all. Having only documents will not fulfill the HIPAA requirements, the procedures must be implemented by all the employees.

– Specific procedure in case of incidents is necessary: To fulfill the HIPAA requirements the healthcare organizations needs to have a procedure for response to any incidents. This involves a pre-planned procedure that determines the steps to be followed in case of security breach incidents. A team is formed known as the incident response team. The procedure determines the responsibilities of all members of the incident response team, steps involved in understanding risk to patients, steps needed to deal with the breach, steps to notify all employees, etc. The key element here is that if you have a pre-planned procedure for security breach incidents then you will be prepared to handle any security incidents that come your way.

A healthcare organization requires the accumulation, storage and use of personal health information of patients that is sensitive. This is why protection of secure data becomes very important. In the event of a security breach the patient whose information was compromised faces potential danger. As the confidential patient information is now known to others it causes great inherent harm.

Another result could be economic harm wherein the disclosed information may lead to a person losing his health insurance, job or house. Psychological harm and identity theft are other results of security breach in a healthcare organization.

Therefore, it is essential that you check to see how secure your organization’s health information is, based on the said five points. You must strictly adhere to all aspects of the HIPAA Security Rule to make sure your security is intact.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA security rule website.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA security rule website http://www.hipaaprivacyrule.com

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

Category: Advice
Keywords: HIPAA,Health Insurance ,health information,medical data,HIPAA security rule