Protect Your Practice By Protecting Your Patients
The phrase HIPAA can be a scary term when it comes to lawsuits. Eckenrode Law, in an article reprinted from St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine, points out only a few HIPAA lawsuits where large sums of money were handed out over violations. These violations occurred by laptops being stolen from cars or unlocked rooms in a doctor’s office. Seems silly since it feels like it was out of their hands and they didn’t willingly hand the information over. Sadly, HIPAA violations can quickly bankrupt a business if there aren’t major precautions taken to protect it and yes, the kind mentioned of above count.
HIPAA compliance issues are not limited to the higher up companies or “big wigs.” They just as easily occur with the little guy and are often more detrimental at this level. This is why it’s so important to protect any and all information entrusted with a company, especially if it falls under HIPAA protection. You don’t want to let HIPAA compliance kill your practice.
Not all reported violations are reviewed, however, WebPT lists the following five violations as the main choices to be reviewed: Impermissible uses and disclosures of protected health information, lack of safeguards of protected health information, inability for patients to access their protected health information, lack of administrative safeguards of electronic protected health information, and use or disclosure of more than the minimum necessary protected health information. Therefore, these are important aspects to focus on protecting and a huge step to covering your practice.
If you want to avoid your business going under due to HIPAA compliance, the main focus should be avoiding a breach or opportunities that can cause breaches. For example, leaving a laptop in an unlocked and unsupervised room is not a great way to protect you or your client’s best interests. Focusing on the mitigation of breaches is the best way to avoid compliance violations which ultimately protects your business and your clients.
Looking for some help in protecting your practice and tech inside of it? Give us a quick call for free HIPAA compliant consultation.
