How To Become HIPAA Compliant

The primary goal of this session is to demonstrate why the health care organization needs to be HIPAA compliant and the steps necessary to meet HIPAA regulations. This includes a description of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations, definitions of key terms, the relationships between the HIPAA regulations, the HIPAA risk assessment, the preparation of the HIPAA training materials, and the training program for your workforce. 

The topic explains each of the regulations in the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations, how they interact with each other and their implication in the implementation of the regulations upon the health care practice. Because the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations are both extensive and comprehensive, the topic provides a series of checklists for the attendee to reference to follow the most effective path to HIPAA compliance. 

In addition, the topic provides a description of the role your information technology plays in your compliance efforts, the relationship between the Privacy and Security regulations upon your assessment of your current compliance, how to understand that assessment, how to prepare internal HIPAA policies and procedures, how to train your staff, and what comprises a breach and what to do when a breach occurs.

The process described in this presentation has been used for many years and several healthcare providers and payors and has withstood the scrutiny of audits by governmental agencies and provide payors.

• Why HIPAA Evolved and its Impact on the healthcare industry
• What are HIPAA and key definitions of HIPAA terms
• How to assess your current HIPAA compliance
• How to prepare internal HIPAA policies and procedures
• How to train your work staff in the HIPAA regulations
• What is a HIPAA breach and how to respond to a breach
• The role of IT in your HIPAA compliance and how to work with your HIPAA IT vendors.

In 1995 the HIPAA Act began to set the standards for how to secure patient health information from unauthorized individuals seeing that information. Among other areas addressed in HIPAA, HIPAA addresses the standards for how providers and payors can use patient health information, what authorizations are needed to allow third parties to see patient health information, and how to secure that data from unauthorized disclosure. There have been several issuances of regulations to support the HIPAA Act basically describing how providers and payors need to protect patient health information from being disclosed to unauthorized individuals.

To put teeth to these regulations, HIPAA establishes many penalties for not properly caring for the patient's health information, depending upon the level of care the provider or payor used to protect the data. In addition, states have also codified the standards for protecting the privacy of patient health information.  As a result, both the federal government, the state, and the individual now have the ability to pursue remedies for providers and patients not using adequate means for protecting patient health information.

Therefore, it is critical for all providers and payors to perform all tasks necessary for complying with HIPAA regulations. Failure to protect the data or recognize when a breach occurred can result in significant penalties and embarrassing publicity, and prison time for committing a crime. 

This course provides the pathway for becoming compliant with these regulations. The course provides not only a description of how to become compliant but also provides checklists for you to follow to ensure that you meet the HIPAA compliance regulations.

• Health Care Organization Ownership and Senior Management
• Healthcare Organization Compliance Officer
• Office Management
• Work staff
• Business Associates
• Physicians.