Quick Compliance, New HIPAA Solutions
Written by David Johnson
In a new and ever changing medical landscape, the privacy of patients is at risk. With the advent of technology and prevalence of social media, it may be easy to unknowingly overlook a patient’s privacy. Moreover, one issue identified by DentalIQ is the use of unencrypted communication between professionals to expedite patient care. In a recent article, Dental IQ discussed one solution to maintaining compliance by using an encrypted text messaging platform.
While communication via text and various other group messaging systems may appear harmless, it may introduce the risk of exposing sensitive patient information to individuals who should not have access to that information. Taking these shortcuts with the intention to help patients more quickly may actually put patients at risk if the proper protections are not in place.
Although big businesses may be targets for hackers, small business often lack the infrastructure to defend themselves against such attacks. Using outdated systems may also pose a risk for any office. According to a TechRepublic article on HIPAA breach risk for small businesses,
“new HIPAA guidance states that the government will now categorize ransomware attacks as a breach … Prior to this guidance, if you were blocked from accessing your data, it was not generally viewed as an improper acquisition of PHI—it was assumed that you were locked out, but not that the records were viewed or stolen”
With that knowledge, small healthcare providers should equip themselves as well as possible to avoid any attacks. Some solutions proposed by TechRepublic include:
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Use a 3rd party consultant
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Thoroughly record measures used to prevent ransomware
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Keep up to date with cybersecurity
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Update security systems periodically
At American Medical Compliance we offer on-boarding courses as well as refresher courses for a variety of HIPAA topics including social media, cybersecurity, and even courses tailored to clinical and non-clinical support roles. Keeping up to date with federal and state compliance is very important to AMC and we believe that compliance can be easy and effective at providing the protections necessary to maintain best operating practices. Make sure your business is protected and informed about changing landscape of healthcare while utilizing new secure solutions to expedite information exchange.
