Right from the outset you must know that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not prescribe any specific training or courses to be taken by the employees of the covered entities. However, it does require such entities to follow all the regulations as outlined in the Act.

The following 5 points will tell you why training is important and the best ways to get it.

– HIPAA Laws: HIPAA comprises of several healthcare related laws for your benefit and has amended and added more in the course of time. The laws as you know, not only provide you with long term insurance cover but also stress on safeguarding your personal information which is in the hands of different entities. These covered entities comprising of healthcare providers, health plan and clearing houses are governed by several provisions to keep such information safe and prevent violations.

– Need for Training: HIPAA has laid down stringent laws for protecting personal information of patients and prescribed civil and criminal penalties should there be any misuse of information. The entities, in addition to managing vast amounts of sensitive information have to keep themselves abreast of any changes in the law. Thus it is in their own interest that such entities must put their employees through proper training to ensure compliance with HIPAA provisions. The entities can choose between a number of in-class or online training methods with different durations stretching from a few hours to a few days or longer.

– Educational Courses: Academic courses have curriculum that will give you an overview of HIPAA and how different parties are affected by its laws. It also emphasizes on privacy rules and how key information should be handled and the precautions to be taken. It also informs how to rectify breaches and the consequences for violations. There are separate courses that focus on different areas of the HIPAA provisions and you can take the one according to your particular area of work.

– Computer Training: HIPAA has laid considerable stress on using the electronic medium for storage and exchange of information. As the use of this medium has increased in healthcare so have the vulnerabilities. Employees have to be properly trained to manage all the electronic information according to the regulations while guarding against any unauthorized access or breach in its security systems. Suitable computer training will ensure that the information is used properly and any deviations are quickly noticed and due measures are taken to rectify the issues on hand.

– Ongoing Training: Seeing the nature of HIPAA where there may be many modifications and interpretations to the laws, some entities can opt for a more consistent flow of information and training to its employees to keep them updated of any changes. Newsletters, internal documents, periodic training and solving internal modules are some of the ways to ensure the knowledge stays relevant.

As you can see, training is a must to be able to understand and interpret the many provisions of HIPAA and is almost indispensible if you wish to discharge your duties effectively and not violate any laws unknowingly.

For more information, please visit our hipaa website.

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Keywords: health care organizations ,HIPAA,Health Insurance ,HIPAA Compliant,HIPAA Penalties ,HIPAA act