Implement Appropriate Controls To Be Hippa Compliant

By Author: Martin Lobo
Total Articles: 355
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The adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) by the healthcare Industry has made it mandatory for organizations to ensure the safe handling of sensitive data. The importance of maintaining the highly sensitive information of the patients is highly essential, as this data can be used against the individuals in case of the database getting hacked, corrupted or stolen. Most of the losses of PHI usually occur through theft, accident or malfunctioning equipment, hence to protect the privacy of PHI,providers must be alert to the behavior of their employees, patients, and even individuals who have no relationship to the facility.

To help healthcare organizations comply with HIPAA, security standards have been created to help organizations protect personally identifiable information (PII). HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, requires healthcare organizations to comply with a host of regulations covering the privacy of personal health information (PHI). Any organization that accesses patient health information is considered a covered entity and is required by law to comply with HIPAA ...
... provisions or face civil and/or criminal penalties. HIPAA compliance is a necessity in today’s environment as non-compliance brings risks of fines, prison, & lawsuits that can impact either individuals or corporate entities.

Additionally, the passage of the HITECH Act has increased the criminal penalties associated with HIPAA not only to covered entities but to individual employees of covered entities and business associates (BA). Health care providers, health plans and other health care services that operate in all states have to abide by the minimum standards set by HIPAA.These standards encompass administrative procedures, technical security mechanisms and services, and physical safeguards. Security standards compliance and overall HIPAA compliance outlined by the Act is imperative to the ongoing business operations of healthcare organizations.

To assure compliance with privacy requirements, you need to stay current on the changing regulatory environment. All health care providers have a responsibility to keep their staff trained and informed regarding HIPAA compliance. Whether intentional or accidental, unauthorized disclosure of PHI is considered a violation of HIPAA. HIPAA compliance makes it even more important for healthcare organizations to ensure appropriate controls and safeguards to be implemented to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of sensitive patient data.

Healthcare organizations need to invest in a proactive compliance management solution that can provide compelling solutions to all security related risks. Such a solution must be completely automated and must ensure integrated IT security monitoring along with innovative, unified security assessment and compliance services delivered from the cloud. A one-stop solution, that allows healthcare providers to abide as per the compliance regulations of HIPAA and HITECH, is most likely to be the best bet.

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