Maintaining HIPAA Compliance through Essential Tips

HIPAA has become an essential framework in the healthcare sector. HIPAA compliance refers to those sets of rules that are formed to protect the data of a patient’s health and keep its privacy intact. It has some procedures and policies that an organization needs to be aware of to protect HIPAA compliance thoroughly.

 HIPAA is a process that needs attention to detail with a positive approach to secure patients’ health information. It is a kind of way of winning the trust of the patients in your organization by protecting their health information. The patients also need to be careful about the notice of privacy practices that include the knowledge of their privacy rights.

Here are some essential tips to maintain HIPAA compliance by the healthcare organization.

Understanding of HIPAA compliance

Healthcare organizations need to understand that it is not just legal to handle patients’ health information but also to keep it safe.  PHI (Patient health information) is the data providing the patient’s medical history, treatment commended for it, and payment information.  A patient’s name, address and contact number are also considered a part of PHI. 

Health organization has to make sure that all the medical data of the patient is accessible only to the authorized persons of the organization or patient. Also, when needed, it is the responsibility of the healthcare to dispose of the data respecting the patient’s privacy.

Developing a strong HIPAA program

It is of great importance that healthcare develops HIPAA compliance programs. The organization has to be compliant with HIPAA to protect and secure patients’ data effectively. This program should cater to the specific needs of safeguarding the patient’s data through a policies and procedures checklist.

The checklist holds great importance as it streamlines those HIPAA regulations that healthcare needs to stick to provide strict security to PHI access. If the HIPAA compliance program is well constructed, there are fewer chances for the patients’ data security to be breached.

Following HIPAA security rules             

HIPAA security rules and regulations are to be applied to electronic PHI. It requires physical and cyber security measures. As technology has advanced, there is a need to protect HIPAA electronic data more efficiently. You can take physical help by installing cameras at the concerned places along with biometric access to the authorities only.

Advanced encryption technology can also be used for PHI data storage and transfer. External hard drives need to be used under strict safety measures only by authorized persons.

Effective staff training and risk analysis

 For the security of HIPAA compliance, healthcare or any other organization dealing with HIPAA needs to train the staff effectively. The staff needs training on the usage of policies, passwords, and emailing.

 They also need to run the risk analysis to avoid any kind of data loss. It would facilitate taking immediate action in case of some breach in the policies and regulations.

 Conclusion

HIPAA compliance, being the health information of a patient, holds great significance. It needs some measures taken to keep HPI safe and secure from unauthorized use. By following the essential tips to maintain HIPAA compliance PHI can be accessed by authorized persons only.