hipaa security

hipaa compliant

The Office for Civil Rights declared that it would start concentrating on data security breaches affecting fewer than 500 persons in a HIPAA Compliance news item. As a result, many practises can find themselves under HIPAA security scrutiny. Larger breaches have been the subject of numerous investigations in the past, but now lesser breaches will also be looked into.

As one might expect, one of the biggest problems that medical offices have to deal with when handling sensitive information is hacking. In addition to hackers becoming more intelligent every day, technology is also improving every day. Although it can make data protection simpler, it also makes it simpler for hackers. If precautions aren’t taken, technology can absolutely be a weak point. Huge vulnerabilities can be caused by malware, phishing, and simply losing mobile devices that contain protected health information. Hackers aren’t the only issue practises must contend with, though. Additional problems include incorrect disposal of protected health information, inadequate transmission safety, and inability to address identified risks (PHI). Medical practises are the covered entity that is compelled to take HIPAA corrective action the most frequently, according to recent OCR enforcement data.

Practices can take measures to reduce HIPAA security risks and stop these kinds of breaches from happening. With these 7 pointers, you can get information about how to be Hipaa compliant.

1 Watch out for weak points: The HIPAA audit protocol can be used by practitioners to conduct a risk analysis. Moreover, the security risk assessment tool developed jointly by the HHS Office of the General Counsel and the Office of the National Coordinator. The risk assessment tool was developed to help healthcare professionals in smaller practises identify the risks to their business.

2. Educate: Make sure every employee is informed and cognizant of the potential consequences of falling victim to hacking. Employees run the risk of clicking random links and accessing dangerous email attachments if they are not given the right training. To reduce the danger of phishing and hacking, some service providers decide to prohibit specific behaviours and rights, such as utilising personal email, chatting, or internet access on corporate computers and devices.

3. Technical Security: All medical practises should always employ top-notch antivirus software, email filters, and web security gateways as a first line of defence against a HIPAA security breach.

4. Data backup strategy: Make sure that data is stored and can be quickly recovered in the event that there is a data breach. A data backup system can be used to do this. Before the backup plan needs to be deployed in a real-life event, it’s a good idea to try it out to make sure it functions as intended.

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