What Is HIPAA?

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It is commonly misspelled as “HIPPA” when individuals have not taken training or completed HIPAA compliance initiative. It is a federal law passed in 1996 as an attempt at incremental healthcare reform. It was revised in 2009 with the ARRA/HITECH Act, meaningful use, in 2013 with the Omnibus Rule and additional minor changes. Regulation’s goal is to reform the healthcare and Insurance industries by reducing paperwork & costs, simplifying administrative processes, burdens and improving the privacy and security of patients’ information with easy accessibility of their records. Enforcement rule and breach notification rule has to lead to fines and penalties due to a violation of rules. The HIPAA Security Rule mandates that every practice or health care organization that creates, stores, or transmits ePHI, must designate a privacy compliance officer regardless of their size. In larger firms there will typically be a dedicated HIPAA privacy officer and HIPAA Security officer, however, in a smaller firm, the role might fall on an employee with administrative or IT responsibilities as well. Below, we’ve outlined some of the key features of the role of a HIPAA privacy officer, HIPAA Security officer along with what they should be expected to know when it comes to maintaining HIPAA compliance.

Who Need to Comply with Privacy and Security Rules?

Any organization or person who works in or with the healthcare industry or who has access to protected health information.

Covered entities under the regulation are Health Care Providers (Hospitals, Doctors, Clinics, Psychologists, Dentists, Chiropractors, Nursing Homes, Pharmacies), Employer Group Health Plans (Health insurance companies, HMOs, Company health plans, Medicare, Medicaid, etc) and Health Care Clearinghouse. Check if you are covered entity under HIPAA regulations.

HIPAA Privacy Security Officer Training Certification for Compliance

Are you confused about which HIPAA Training to select for your employees? If you are the HIPAA Privacy Officer, have you taken the HIPAA compliance training to help your company achieve and maintain HIPAA compliance? Have you created a HIPAA compliance manual for your privacy and security policies?

The Role of a HIPAA Privacy Officer

A HIPAA Privacy Officer is responsible for conducting privacy rule gap analysis and developing a HIPAA-compliant privacy program if one does not already exist, or – if a privacy program is already in place – for ensuring privacy policies & procedures to protect the integrity of PHI are enforced. A HIPAA Privacy Officer will have to monitor compliance with the privacy program, investigate incidents in which a breach of PHI may have occurred, report breaches as necessary, and ensure patients´ rights in accordance with state and federal laws.

The Role Of HIPAA Security Officer

The Role of a HIPAA Security Officer Training is not dissimilar to those of a Privacy Officer in as much as the appointed person will be responsible for the development of security policies, the implementation of procedures, training, risk assessments, contingency planning and monitoring compliance. However, the focus of a Security Officer in compliance with the Administrative, Physical and Technical Safeguards of the Security Rule.