HIPAA Compliance Tips and Best Practices

Recently, an increasing number of complex cyberattacks on healthcare businesses have led to healthcare providers and companies putting in more effort to ensure that they are HIPAA compliant and secure. Protecting sensitive patient data, especially when it comes to medical records, should be the top priority in a world where hacking and cyberattacks are becoming more commonplace. The HIPAA Security Rule is in place to allow healthcare providers to adopt a range of new technologies in the best interests of preserving patient privacy and security. Here are some HIPAA compliance tips and best practices that all healthcare providers should be aware of.

Enforcing Security Standards Companywide:

Automation is one of the most popular modern applications when it comes to security enforcement techniques in the workplace, including enforcing content security standards for web activity, network access, data movement, app use, and more. Monitoring software can be used to enforce these security standards companywide and ensure that you are alerted immediately if any potential threats are detected so that you can take immediate action to prevent the attack.

HIPAA Policies

Every healthcare provider is required to have strong HIPAA compliance policies in place. Clear policies that all employees can follow are one of the most crucial components of ensuring a HIPAA compliant healthcare company or provider. It’s worth working with an expert who can help you to put together policies that will be easy to follow and ensure that confusion or misunderstandings are avoided since it’s often simple misunderstandings and human error that can lead to serious problems.

Outsource

When it comes to ensuring HIPAA compliance, smaller healthcare providers might find that it is a wise idea to outsource to companies that have stronger policies in place and a wider range of resources. For example, a medical insurance company might consider outsourcing to American Retrieval for record retrieval services to ensure that this is done in a secure and HIPAA-compliant manner. No matter what you decide to outsource in your company if HIPAA is a factor to consider, it’s important to carefully research any companies that you are planning to work with and make sure that they take HIPAA compliance very seriously, otherwise it could be a very costly mistake for your business.

Employee Training

Having clear, strong HIPAA compliance policies in place is important – but it’s not enough on its own. Healthcare provider employees should be required to attend regular training and refresher sessions to ensure that their knowledge of these policies is up-to-date. Training sessions also give employees a chance to ask questions and get clarity on any areas of the policies that they may not be familiar with. Since HIPAA policies often have to be updated and changed with cyber criminals constantly looking for new ways to steal patient data, regular training is a must in this industry.

HIPAA compliance is a huge part of any healthcare company, and protecting patient data has never been more important in a world where cyberattacks are rapidly increasing. By using the right tools and resources along with educating employees, you can ensure HIPAA compliance in your healthcare business.