When your company deals with health and medical records, it’s important that everyone on your staff complies with the HIPAA laws and regulations. HIPAA, otherwise known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was passed to protect patients. Under the law, industry-wide standards are mandated to ensure your healthcare information is protected and confidentially handled. Companies found breaking HIPAA laws can face hefty fines or even be put out of business altogether.
Remembering to be HIPAA compliant is essential for your business. After all, if your company is found to violate any laws, then your company could find yourself in major trouble that could potentially put you out of business.
Instead of running that risk, the following are a few tips to help ensure your business is and remains HIPAA compliant.
Create privacy policies.
It’s very important that your company not only create, but also adhere to, strict privacy policies. Create a list of very specific privacy policies that your company and employees need to adhere to, such as not sending confidential information through an unsecured source and not selling patient information to third parties. The stricter your policies, the better protected you’ll be.
Invest in the right software.
If your company is going digital, which most companies today are, then it’s very important you invest in the right software. Make sure that all of your software and programs are safe and secure to use, and ensure they keep your patients’ confidentiality intact. If you store patient information in an unsecure way, you run the risk of having this information stolen or breached, and that is not a risk you want to take. So whether it’s an in-house server or a HIPAA-compliant cloud program, be sure it’s safe.
Perform regular safety assessments.
There are companies out there that will perform professional HIPAA assessments for your business to ensure you are HIPAA compliant. These companies have tools that will test the strength of your programs and policies and look for ways it can be breached. If they find any issues, they will work with you to correct the problem so that you can keep your patients’ information safe.
Provide the right training.
Even if your employees have years of experience, it’s still very important that you regularly provide HIPAA and other safety training. This way, your employees will constantly be reminded about how to correctly handle patient information. They can also use these information sessions to learn about new processes, protocols, or programs that can keep your business HIPAA compliant into the future.
Keep mobile devices secure.
Some healthcare systems are using mobile devices such as tablets for patient rounding and records. While this is an easy way to access and update information, it can provide an easy way to breach the system. If you use mobile devices, you need to make sure these devices are secure. You also need to ensure that all devices are kept on the premises in a safe way and are never removed from the office. Invest in a safe to house the devices, and make sure that all devices are also password protected. The more safety features you can add to the mobile devices, the more HIPAA compliant your company will be.