Overview
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that sets national standards for protecting sensitive Patient Health Information (PHI). A HIPAA audit ensures that the patient’s data is not disclosed to anyone without the consent or knowledge of the patient. The guidelines are enforced by the Office of Civil Rights and governed by the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR).
This further protects the information under the Privacy Rule, which ensures compliance with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. This can be understood as the entities involved in the process of healthcare now being responsible for safeguarding patient data at all levels, thus reducing instances of healthcare fraud and abuse.
Methodology
Our HIPAA audit methodology involves several key steps right, from securing information to ensuring complete safety by performing cyber security testing services. This is mainly to ensure that the two main entities involved in the process are not only identified but also assured of staying in compliance.
The Covered Entitiesare directly involved in gathering, storing, or transferring patient data. These mainly include healthcare service providers, hospitals, and healthcare insurance providers.
Major Rules and Regulations of Hippa
The HIPAA Privacy Rule
HIPAA outlines the circumstances under which Protected Health Information (PHI) may be disclosed or used. While everyone has a right to privacy, specific situations necessitate adherence to these rules. Entities covered by this policy must comply with a stringent set of guidelines.
The HIPAA Security Rule
The HIPAA Security Rule establishes minimum standards for protecting electronic health information. Accessing e-PHI requires meeting these standards, as well as the integrity and confidentiality of data, suggest even for those with technical capabilities.
The HIPAA Breach Rule
In the event of a data breach, the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services be notified promptly within 60 days of discovery. It suggests the disclosure of a breach that impacts the security and privacy of the patient data.
Our Approach.
A systematic approach to assure accuracy always!
- Information Security Policy
- Cyber Crisis Resiliency Program
- Data Protection Policy
- Privacy Statement
- Incident Management Procedure
HIPAA regulations suggest that patient data safety and security are of utmost importance. We understand this, and so our experts move ahead with assessing the level of security at your organization. This is done to check for all the risks associated with the e-PHI data.
We identify the current status of privacy, look for the gaps, and, based on the same, define the changes needed. Our Privacy Control Implementation process is based on this data to ensure all the rules of HIPPA guidelines are met.
- The level at which HIPPA is enforced.
- Checks on the patient data safety rules.
The process of implementing HIPPA does not end with identifying the risks. In the next step, our experts work on creating and defining a framework for you. Starting from defining the controls to moving ahead and helping implement them, we focus on the end-to-end process.
While we develop a framework for you, we ensure that you and your workforce are being trained on the same to ensure the best outcomes. The training sessions are conducted to help you with implementation while allowing the control to sync with HIPPA guidelines.
Now that you have the requirements, gaps, and solutions in place, it’s time to implement them. Our experts focus on designing and establishing centralized processes that not only match your needs but can be worked out with your existing system.
We aim to streamline the entire process and ensure all the necessary compliance is in place as you work. Some of the important points that we ensure while implementing HIPPA for your organization are:
- Handling Data Subject Requests
- Obtaining Data Subject Consent
- Managing Inventory for Breaches
A critical aspect of our HIPAA auditing is a robust internal audit plan in place to ensure that the plan implemented is giving the results as expected. While the organization checks the progress, we plan a yearly audit to ensure things align with what is expected.
Additionally, we ensure that your organization’s post-implementation audit is compliant with HIPPA needs. Also, if there is any deviation, we assure you of a quick alignment to assist you as soon as possible.
Security Rules for HIPPA
The HIPAA Security Rule sets a framework for healthcare organizations to protect electronic Protected Health Information (PHI) from data breaches and unauthorized access. Compliance with HIPAA is crucial for safeguarding patient privacy, maintaining trust, and preventing identity theft. The rule, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 2003, includes:
Safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all electronic protected health information (e-PHI) that organizations create, receive, store, or transmit.
