What Does It Take for a Business to Become HIPAA-Compliant?

What Does It Take for a Business to Become HIPAA-Compliant?

If your business handles patient health information (PHI), then it should comply with HIPAA legislation. This includes not only healthcare providers themselves, but also business associates who handle PHI on their behalf, such as accounting firms, health insurance providers, and cloud vendors.

In other words, if you store or transmit any PHI or may do so in the future, you should start thinking about HIPAA compliance right away. This starts with establishing a privacy and security officer for your organization, and then implementing a compliance plan.

Carrying Out a Risk Assessment

When HIPAA legislation was enacted over 20 years ago, it was not particularly clear on the technical safeguards that needed to be taken to protect customer information. In 2009, the HITECH amended the current legislation to provide a clearer outline of your specific obligations. Once you’ve chosen a privacy and security officer (this can be the same person), your next step will be to carry out a risk assessment of your current workplace environment.

A risk assessment begins with a complete inventory of all your systems, including any electronic devices used for work. Be sure to catalog devices such as employee-owned mobile devices used for business purposes and any other internet-connected systems, whether hosted in-house or remotely.

After everything is catalogued, you’ll need to assess the potential risks facing each system based on any preexisting security measures you have in place as well as vulnerability to other issues, such as natural disasters or human error.

Implementing Privacy and Security Policies

Once you have a full risk assessment at hand, it’s time to assemble a blueprint for achieving compliance. The HIPAA security rule consists of three parts that govern technical, physical, and administrative safeguards, and each area includes specific implementation requirements.

Many of these are compulsory, while others provide a degree of flexibility depending on the specific parameters of your organization. The technical safeguards are broken down into the following actionable measures:

  • Implement access controls, including multifactor authentication, emergency access procedures, data encryption, and automatic logouts.
  • Create an auditing system to govern the deployment of new systems and the ongoing monitoring of their security.
  • Ensure the integrity of PHI by implementing electronic measures that ensure it is not modified or destroyed by an unauthorized user.

HIPAA defines physical safeguards for protecting PHI stored in printed format as well as the physical protection of hardware devices that store digital PHI. This includes limiting factors like physical access to the facilities such as storage rooms and workstations, to prevent theft or tampering. Finally, you’ll also need to implement administrative safeguards that define the policies and procedures you’ll enact to enforce your security measures.

The Importance of Training Employees

Unfortunately, becoming HIPAA-compliant doesn’t stop once you’ve taken care of all the red tape provided by the legislation. Oftentimes, your employees are the weakest link, and that’s why no cybersecurity strategy (regardless of compliance) is complete without implementing an ongoing staff-training and awareness program.

HIPAA legislation requires that you annually train your employees to ensure they know what to do and whom to report to in the event of a suspicious occurrence or data breach. By communicating information concerning your privacy and security policies and procedures, you’ll be able to create a culture of accountability that helps enforce the rules you’ve worked so hard to create.

Becoming compliant might sound like a major chore, but it’s an absolute necessity in today’s volatile digital world. However, that doesn’t mean you need to take on all the responsibility yourself. By partnering with an MSP that understands compliance inside-out, you’ll be able to keep your focus on running your business. Call OC-IT today to find out more.