HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which sets the standards for safeguarding sensitive patient data. If your organization deals with PHI or Protective Health Information, it is imperative that it maintains all the required physical as well as the network security measures to secure invaluable information. This Act was introduced in 1996 much before the digital evolution and therefore the language can be perceived as complex and difficult to comprehend. Here is a guide to enable your organization to maintain HIPAA Compliance.
In order to ensure the privacy and security of your PHI, you need to address the following four rules.
- HIPAA Privacy Rule
The HIPAA Privacy rule establishes the National Standards for securing PHI. It tells you to prevent in unauthentic use of disclosure of PHI and to report any kind of breach notification. This rule also binds your organization to render an accounting of disclosures and adhere to the requirements of the security rules of HIPAA.
- HIPAA Security Rule
This rule is in place to address the technical as well as non-technical safeguards which your organization needs to put in place to secure PHI. It is to be mentioned here that the HIPAA Security rule binds and protects PHI whether the information is stored digitally or in printed copy.
- HIPAA Enforcement Rule
This rule binds any kind of past or ongoing investigations, penalties or trials of organizations which have failed to be HIPAA compliant.
- HIPAA Breach Notification Rule
The HIPAA Compliance allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to contain a list of breaches which has compromised PHI resulting in affecting 500 or more individuals. Therefore, if your organization has breached HIPAA, it is imperative to report the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the same.
