HIPAA Compliance

What is HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that sets national standards for the protection of electronic health information. The goal of HIPAA is to ensure that patient data is kept confidential and secure. Without HIPAA,  many people would not feel comfortable sharing their health information with physicians or other healthcare providers.

HIPAA is split into two sections: Administrative Simplification and the Privacy Rule. The goals of HIPAA are to ensure all individuals receive quality, safe medical care; increase access to insurance for everyone; protect confidentiality in patient records; reduce fraud through better identification methods; and use health information technology to improve healthcare.

Why is HIPAA Important?

HIPAA compliance is extremely important for two reasons: patient safety and data security. Patient safety is the number one priority of HIPAA. By ensuring that all businesses who deal with protected health information are compliant with HIPAA, we can reduce the risk of data breaches and ensure that patient information remains confidential.

Data security is also a top priority for HIPAA. By implementing data security measures, we can protect patient information from being accessed or stolen by unauthorized individuals.

What can we do?

If you are a Covered Entity or a Business Associate, ensure that you comply with HIPAA regulations if your organization has access to electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) by:

• Helping you create and publish HIPAA Privacy and Security Policy Manual

• Train your workforce in understanding HIPAA and also the Privacy and Security Policies

• Conduct the annual Enterprise wide HIPAA Security Risk Assessment

Why is HIPAA Important?

The requirements of HIPAA can be daunting, but our HIPAA Compliance Services will help you every step of the way. The main requirements of HIPAA are as follows:

• Businesses must implement security measures to protect patient data from being accessed or stolen by unauthorized individuals.

• Businesses must create and enforce policies and procedures for HIPAA compliance.

• Businesses must train employees on HIPAA policies and procedures.

• Businesses must maintain a record of all activity related to HIPAA compliance.

• If you deal with patient information as part of your business, then you are required by law to be compliant with HIPAA. In addition, if your organization subcontracts any work that involves PHI (protected health information), then those companies also need to be HIPAA compliant.

• Any company that deals with PHI can be audited at any time to ensure they are HIPAA compliant. It is the responsibility of businesses to prove their compliance, not the government’s job.

What is HITECH?

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) legislation was created in 2009 to stimulate the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and supporting technology in the United States. It introduced the Meaningful Use program incentivizing healthcare organizations to maintain the Protected Health Information of patients in electronic format, rather than in paper files.

How Can ETECH IT Help Me Become HIPAA Compliant?

ETECH IT offers a variety of services to help businesses become HIPAA compliant. We offer a comprehensive suite of services that include:

• Compliance Assessment

• Policy and Procedure Development

• Staff Training

• Technical Support

We also offer a variety of other services, such as disaster recovery planning, data security assessment, and cloud services. No matter what your business needs, we can help you become HIPAA compliant.