hipaa checklist to ensure patient portal safety

by Mr. Tyree Rosenbaum 10 min read

Official 2022 HIPAA Compliance Checklist

9 hours ago  · Launching a HIPAA-compliant website is foundational to your success, but beyond this initial step, ongoing verification is needed to ensure that patient information continues to be securely captured and stored. Establish an internal audit and risk assessment protocol, and make its routine implementation mandatory for your operations. >> Go To The Portal


What is HIPAA compliance checklist?

What is a HIPAA Compliance Checklist? A HIPAA compliance checklist is a tool that helps institutions and their associates who handle Protected Health Information (PHI) stay compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is a US law that requires the careful handling of PHI or individually identifiable ...

Is your organization HIPAA compliant?

If your organization is subject to the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it is recommended you review our HIPAA compliance checklist 2021 in order to ensure your organization complies with HIPAA requirements for the privacy and security of Protected Health Information (PHI).

What is HIPAA compliance software?

Many firms offer HIPAA compliance software to guide you through your HIPAA compliance checklist, ensure ongoing compliance with HIPAA Rules, and provide you with HIPAA certification.

Does the HIPAA security rule apply to my business?

If your business accesses or handles personal patient data (“electronic protected health information” or ePHI) in any way, the HIPAA Security Rule almost certainly applies to you. For more information, see For Covered Entities and Business Associates .

What is HIPAA compliance checklist?

Technical SafeguardsImplementation SpecificationRequired or AddressableImplement a means of access controlRequiredIntroduce a mechanism to authenticate ePHIAddressableImplement tools for encryption and decryptionAddressableIntroduce activity logs and audit controlsRequired1 more row

What does HIPAA have to say about patient portals?

Online patient portals allow patients to view their medical records, schedule appointments, and even request refills of prescriptions, anywhere the patient has access to the Internet. Patient portals contain information that constitutes electronic protected health information (ePHI) under the HIPAA Security Rule.

How do you ensure HIPAA compliance?

Steps to Implement a HIPAA Compliance PlanReview and document workplace operations for potential risks/vulnerabilities.Check all computers, mobile devices, paper records and storage of records, and additional security measures to ensure that all PHI is being stored, used, and distributed appropriately and securely.More items...

What are the 5 steps towards HIPAA compliance?

5 Steps for Implementing a Successful HIPAA Compliance PlanStep 1 – Choose a Privacy and Security Officer. ... Step 2 – Risk Assessment. ... Step 3 – Privacy and Security Policies and Procedures. ... Step 4 – Business Associate Agreements. ... Step 5 – Training Employees.

Who does the 21st Century Cures Act apply to?

electronic patient health informationThe requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act only applies to electronic patient health information. If you are using paper records, it will not apply to you. There is no mandate for you to move to an EHR.

Is follow my health HIPAA compliant?

FollowMyHealth is HIPAA-compliant. It adheres to mandated encryption standards when receiving, sending, and storing a patient's health information.

What are 3 key elements of HIPAA?

The three components of HIPAA security rule compliance. Keeping patient data safe requires healthcare organizations to exercise best practices in three areas: administrative, physical security, and technical security.

What are the 4 standards of HIPAA?

The HIPAA Security Rule Standards and Implementation Specifications has four major sections, created to identify relevant security safeguards that help achieve compliance: 1) Physical; 2) Administrative; 3) Technical, and 4) Policies, Procedures, and Documentation Requirements.

What are the 3 rules of HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) lays out three rules for protecting patient health information, namely:The Privacy Rule.The Security Rule.The Breach Notification Rule.

What action steps must staff members take to ensure that they abide by HIPAA regulations?

Steps a Health Care Provider Can Take to Ensure Patient PrivacyUse a VPN. ... Have A Business Associate Agreement With Your Vendors. ... Respect Your Patients Privacy While They're in Your Office. ... Post a Notice of your Privacy Practices. ... Develop & Follow a Privacy Policies and Procedures Manual. ... Train Your Team.More items...•

What steps are necessary be HIPAA compliant in a workplace?

5 steps to becoming HIPAA compliantDesignate a HIPAA privacy and security officer. ... Develop and implement HIPAA policies and procedures. ... Provide HIPAA training to all staff members. ... Complete a gap analysis and security risk analysis (SRA) to determine the current state of HIPAA compliance.More items...•

What is a key to success for HIPAA compliance?

A key to successful HIPAA compliance is to manage your third-party business associates. Or, if you are a business associate, you must manage any subcontractor business associates you use.

HIPAA Website Compliance 101

HIPAA policies are designed to both protect patient health information from unauthorized view or capture and to facilitate a patient’s right to their health information using a three-pronged approach:

Do You Have an SSL Certificate?

SSL (or secure sockets layer ) and TLS (or transport layer security ) encryption protect data traveling from your website to another destination, such as a server, internal email inbox, or EHR (electronic health record). Encryption is absolutely crucial for the HIPAA-compliant website.

Ensure That Your Web Forms and Emails Are Encrypted

Encryption also protects the patient information captured by online forms, online bill pay, and so forth, as it is transmitted to your clinic. Where this information lands must also be well-encrypted.

Select a Secure Web Hosting Vendor

Google “web hosting,” and there are dozens of services eager to win your business with all the bells and whistles. However, not all web hosting companies are equipped for secure ePHI management.

Establish Strict Policies for Staff, Contractors, and Third-Party Partners

Before giving anyone access to the website or the data collected from the website, they will need to be aware of and fully understand the security measures set in place. As a best practice, each user should have their own login (no shared access) and have a unique alphanumeric password. The password should be hard to remember.

Are You Using 3rd Party Partners? Sign a BAA

The old adage, “many hands make for lighter work,” aptly describes the modern healthcare landscape. For busy medical professionals, the enlisting of third-party services becomes necessary. This often involves third parties having Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with ePHI, or systems that store this data.

Maintain HIPAA Compliance: Continue to Test Your Security

Medical practices are at the mercy of technology, and technologies are always shifting and evolving. In addition, the more people you give privileged access to (both internal and third-party associates), the more opportunities there are for a data breach.

What is HIPAA compliance checklist?

A HIPAA compliance checklist is a tool that helps institutions and their associates who handle Protected Health Information (PHI) stay compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is a US law that requires the careful handling of PHI or individually identifiable health information.

How to avoid HIPAA violations?

Help avoid HIPAA violations with these tips: 1 Start with HR – recruit the right staff, conduct background checks, and provide the proper training on handling patient information. Keep staff updated about new risks to information security. 2 Evaluate the compliance of staff and partners – check the practices of staff and vendors handling PHI. Reinforce HIPAA compliant practices by conducting audits ( per HIPAA) and observe staff while on the job. Ask vendors for evidence of HIPAA compliance. 3 Access controls – establish physical safeguards for access to information and implement encryption of PHI to mitigate the risk of an information breach. Make sure that IT is always updated about threats and the systems in place are prepared for cyberattacks. 4 Conduct Security Risk Assessments – institutions and staff are constantly exposed to new threats to information security. Conducting regular security risk assessments can help identify and immediately mitigate new and evolving risks to prevent costly HIPAA breaches from taking place.

What is HIPAA law?

HIPAA is a US law that requires the careful handling of PHI or individually identifiable health information. Violation of HIPAA can lead to costly fines and legal action.

What is iAuditor app?

iAuditor, the world’s most powerful mobile auditing app, can help Privacy Compliance Officers and Information Security Officers proactively assess risks and maintain PHI security. Conduct regular audits using the iAuditor app to document gaps and immediately correct issues.

How can covered entities address their obligations under the HIPAA Security Rule?

Covered entities can address their obligations under the HIPAA Security Rule by working with Compliancy Group to develop required Security Rule safeguards.

What is an EPHI?

ePHI is defined as any protected health information (PHI) that is created, stored, transmitted, or received in any electronic format or media.

What is multifactor authentication?

Multifactor authentication, known as MFA, requires users to provide multiple ways to authenticate that it is them, such entering as a password in combination with a fingerprint scan, or a password in combination with a code sent to their phone for one-time use.

How many patient records have been breached in 2019?

Through the first half of June of 2019, 25 million patient records have already been breached. Many of these breaches have been caused by hackers, who sell patient records on the black market and dark web. In light of these startling figures, MFA is an eminently reasonable and appropriate cybersecurity measure.

What is the person or entity authentication standard?

One standard with which covered entities and business associates must comply is known as the Person or Entity Authentication standard. This standard requires an organization to “Implement procedures to verify that a person or entity seeking access to electronic protected health information is the one claimed.”.

What is HIPAA law?

HIPAA. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA) is the legislation in charge of protecting healthcare information. Created in 1996, this federal law provides guidelines on how healthcare providers, clearinghouses, and insurers must deal with consumer data. Under HIPAA, the patient’s health information (PHI) ...

What is protected health information?

This includes: All of a patient’s health record history, physical, or mental. All health care or financial health care information related to the patient.

What is the responsibility of HHS?

Still, it is the responsibility of the entity to document their risk analysis process, taking note of the risks identified, and the reasons behind the selection of the chosen implementations. Administrative Safeguard Requirements.

What is correcting medical records?

Correct the Medical Record — Should any errors be detected in their medical information, individuals have the right request corrections, then confirm that those changes have been made. Use and Disclosure of Medical Information — An individual’s medical information must be disclosed when needed for patient care.

How much is the penalty for HIPAA violations?

Certainly, When it comes to penalties, HIPAA is serious business. Violation fines range from $100 to $50,000 per violation ( up to $1.5M a year per violation ), and up to 10 years of imprisonment for those responsible depending on the case. HIPAA’s core rule is the Privacy Rule.

Is anonymized data covered by HIPAA?

Meaning, if a string of information is cannot be traced back to a patient, it is not covered by HIPAA.

Is HIPAA a quick summary?

Unfortunately, the amount of requirements specified by HIPAA is not a quick summary, at all. Do not fret! One of HIPAA’s strengths -and weaknesses- is that it’s contextual and flexible. HIPAA adapts itself to an entity’s context, that’s why it requires an implemented and continuous risk analysis process.

Redundancy is the key

While backups are an absolute must, you can take it one step further by keeping another backup at a different location, preferably offline or on another network. This way, even if the main data is locked up by ransomware, you’ll always have access to the second backup – as long as you keep it updated consistently.

Ensure all your sensitive data is encrypted

Ransomware is not the only weapon used by hackers. While ransomware focuses on locking the data and asking for a ransom to release the data, hackers can also cause data breaches and steal the data and sell it on the black market.

Follow HIPAA Regulations after a breach

Healthcare data breaches are occurring almost every day and this shows that almost any organization can be hit by a data breach, especially smaller hospitals. Instead of being reactive, be proactive by preparing response plans in case a breach occurs. Fortunately, HIPAA has rules for you to follow, after a data breach.

Train your staff members

This is one of the most important points of the HIPAA compliance cheat sheet, as it is a crucial tool to protect PHI and ensure HIPAA compliance. Hackers are becoming more creative with how they approach and steal sensitive information, with PHI being an important target.

Use software to simplify HIPAA compliance

HIPAA compliance is both crucial and complex. Your organization needs to ensure it is always up-to-date and with the changing rules and regulations.

What is HIPAA?

Endorsed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) gives rules and guidelines to clinical information security.

What is HIPAA Compliance?

HIPAA compliance is the cycle that business relations and covered elements follow to ensure and make sure about Protected Health Information (PHI) as endorsed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. What that lawful language implies is “keep individuals’ medical services information hidden.”

Importance of HIPAA Compliance Checklist

HIPAA rules and regulations are unfathomably basic. Inability to go along can put patients’ health data in danger. Breaks can disastrously affect an organization’s standing, and you could be dependent upon disciplinary activity and severe infringement fines and punishments by CMS/OCR.

What are the HIPAA Rules & Regulations?

The public authority passed the HIPAA security rule during the 1990s, in view of two objectives: to improve the compactness of medical coverage when individuals changed positions and to decrease medical services misrepresentation and waste.

7-Step HIPAA Compliance Checklist to become a compliant

To become HIPAA compliant, you don’t have to pressure much as it isn’t vastly different from any 21st-century information security strategy. Besides, building a solid information security system can assist you with looking after compliance.

Elements to be included in a HIPAA Compliance App

Obviously, it’s essential to consider whether your application will be utilized to store or communicate ensured health data, paying little attention to mobile app development strategies will help you get a great product.

How Appventurez can help you?

We are one of the leading technology partners for many corporates across the globe. We understand and adapt the policies of every industry and make sure to transform the business into a reliable brand under them.

Administration

  • Penalties for HIPAA violations can be issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and state attorneys general. In addition to financial penalties, covered entities are required to adopt a corrective action plan to bring policies and procedures up to the …
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Criticism

  • The Federal Communication Commission has issued a Declaratory Ruling and Order to clarify the rules regarding HIPAA and patient telephone calls. Some healthcare providers have had trouble understanding the rules regarding HIPAA and patient telephone calls, and how the rules comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). []
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Records

  • This article details the largest healthcare data breaches of 2017 and compares this years breach tally to the past two years, which were both record-breaking years for healthcare data breaches. 2015 was a particularly bad year for the healthcare industry, with some of the largest healthcare data breaches ever discovered. There was the massive data breach at Anthem Inc., the likes of …
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Issue

  • What happens if a nurse violates HIPAA Rules? How are HIPAA violations dealt with and what are the penalties for individuals that accidentally or deliberately violate HIPAA and access, disclose, or share protected health information (PHI) without authorization? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [] Healthcare providers and other HIPAA-covered entit…
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Security

  • The HIPAA encryption requirements have, for some, been a source of confusion. The reason for this is the technical safeguards relating to the encryption of Protected Health Information (PHI) are defined as addressable requirements. Furthermore, the HIPAA encryption requirements for transmission security state that covered entities should implement a mechanism to encrypt PHI …
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Scope

  • Our HIPAA Explained article provides information about the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the most recent changes to the Act in 2013, and how provisions within the Act currently affect patients, the healthcare industry as a whole, and the individuals who work within it. Originally proposed in 1996 in order that workers could carry forward insurance a…
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Summary

  • Detailed below is a summary of all HIPAA violation cases that have resulted in settlements with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), including cases that have been pursued by OCR after potential HIPAA violations were discovered during data breach investigations, and investigations of complaints submitted by patients and healthcare employee…
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Uses

  • Slack is a powerful communication tool for improving collaboration, but is Slack HIPAA compliant? Can Slack be used by healthcare organizations for sharing protected health information without risking a HIPAA violation? There has been considerable confusion about the use of Slack in healthcare and whether Slack is HIPAA compliant. []
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Significance

  • The use of digital signatures in the healthcare industry has helped to improve the efficiency of many processes, yet the question still remains can e-signatures be used under HIPAA rules. Effectively the answer is yes, provided that mechanisms are put in place to ensure the legality and security of the contract, document, agreement or authorization, and there is no risk to the integri…
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Purpose

  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a landmark piece of legislation, but why is HIPAA important? What changes did HIPAA introduce and what are the benefits to the healthcare industry and patients? HIPAA was introduced in 1996, primarily to address one particular issue: Insurance coverage for individuals that are between jobs. []
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Impact

  • The HIPAA guidelines on telemedicine affect any medical professional or healthcare organization that provides a remote service to patients in their homes or in community centers. Many people mistakenly believe that communicating ePHI at distance is acceptable when the communication is directly between physician and patient and this would be what the HIPAA Privacy Rule would i…
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Preparation

  • It is important for all healthcare employees to know how to report a HIPAA violation, the correct person to direct the complaint to, and whether the incident should be directed to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR). []
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Operation

  • Although many dental offices are self-contained entities, the HIPAA rules for dentists apply to any dental office that may send claims, eligibility requests, pre-determinations, claim status inquiries or treatment authorization requests electronically. []
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Resources

  • Listed below are a selection of HIPAA articles providing further information and guidance on HIPAA compliance for healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and business associates of covered entities. []
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Facts

  • A nurse HIPAA violation alleged by a patient of Norton Audubon Hospital culminated in the termination of the registered nurses employment contract. The nurse, Dianna Hereford, filed an action in the Jefferson Circuit Court alleging her employer wrongfully terminated her contract on the grounds that a HIPAA violation had occurred []
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Introduction

  • The HIPAA privacy laws were first enacted in 2002 with the objective of protecting the confidentiality of patients´ healthcare information without handicapping the flow of information that was required to provide treatment. The HIPAA privacy laws control who can have access to Protected Health Information (PHI), the conditions under which it can be used, and who it can b…
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Health

  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is widely accepted to be one of the most important pieces of healthcare legislation ever to be introduced in the United States. Next year will be the 20th Anniversary of the introduction of the act, and during that time there have been some major updates to that legislation. []
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Healthcare

  • Many healthcare organizations would like to be able to send protected health information via email, but how do you make your email HIPAA compliant? What must be done before electronic PHI (ePHI) can be sent via email to patients and other healthcare organizations? Whether you need to make your email HIPAA compliant will depend on how you plan to use email with ePHI. […
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