Manny Jones, health care solution manager at LockPath, recently sent me 5 tips to consider in order to meet HIPAA guidelines. It addresses some of the following questions: What does the HIPAA Omnibus rule mean for me? How do I know if I’m compliant? Where do I even begin?
This list of 5 tips are a good place to start.
1. Be prepared for more frequent audits and a fine structure based on knowledge – The new tiered approach means organizations can face much higher fines if they’re not in compliance with the rule.
2. Update Notice of Privacy Practice (NPP) – These should explain that individuals will be notified if there is a breach, disclosures around areas that now require authorizations, and more. Once updated, organizations should redistribute to patients and others to ensure they’re aware of changes.
3. Develop new processes – These should address additional restrictions on use or disclosure of protected health information (PHI).
4. Identify assets containing PHI – Once an organization has an inventory of these assets, they can determine where safeguards/breach notification obligations apply.
5. Understand the new definitions – Organizations should understand how “breach” and “business associate” are now defined and how they apply to their organization.
For those wanting to really dig into the details of HIPAA compliance, you’ll want to consider a HIPAA Compliance training course. These are easy online courses for both the HIPAA privacy officer or your staff. As is noted above, more frequent audits and fines are coming.
Hi John,
Good list!
Another new wrinkle in the HIPAA Omnibus rule is that patients can opt-out of using their insurance for any visit or service and pay cash. This creates a new set of challenges for a physician’s practice as they will now need a mechanism for changing the patient’s payer type for the visit, protect the medical record against inadvertent disclosure to the insurance company and collect from the patient at time of service.
Best wishes,
Mary Pat
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