Business and Management

A Guide To HIPAA Compliance Standards

All organizations that deal with protected health information, whether digital or analog, must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Respecting the HIPAA compliance standard is essential to prevent data loss. It also helps avoid the financial and legal consequences. To protect HIPAA-protected data, organizations need security tools and solutions.

Compliance can be a daunting task for an organization subject to HIPAA. To know more about the basics of HIPAA compliance, browse the internet. You can easily get some guidelines to help you achieve compliance.

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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act sets national standards in the U.S. for protecting sensitive patient data. HIPAA establishes the rules for protecting the security and privacy of individually identifiable health information.

HIPAA compliance standards must be adhered to by any company that handles protected health information (PHI). These standards distinguish between two types of entities that deal with PHI: covered entities and business associates.

Covered entities – Any entity that provides treatment, payment or healthcare operations.

Business associates – Anyone who has access to patient data, handles PHI as third-party, and provides support in treatment, payments, or operations. This includes billing companies, third party consultants, IT providers and attorneys.

Digitization has brought new challenges to the healthcare industry when it comes to sensitive patient information.

Today, most healthcare operations are computerized. This includes electronic medical records (EHR), computerized physician orders (CPOE), electronic pharmacy records (EHR), and laboratory systems.

A system to protect PHI is essential to ensure that personal information is protected in the face of security threats to healthcare data.