With major security breaches making headlines, HIPAA Phase 2 audits set to begin, and the OIG pressuring OCR to crack down on HIPAA violations, there's never been a better time to get serious about compliance.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which provides oversight of other government entities, released a report in September 2015, OCR Should Strengthen Its Followup of Breaches of Patient Health Information Reported by Covered Entities, that included recommendations on how the entity charged with administering the HIPAA privacy and security rules should improve.
The healthcare industry uses email every day to store, distribute, and discuss critical information. Email has become a vital tool for communication supporting clinical and business operations. It has become one of the largest repositories of confidential files within any organization. Email can represent a significant risk due to lack of protection of its contents. Lack of encryption, misrouting of sensitive patient information, and hitting "reply" without ensuring the message is encrypted and directed to the correct email address will result in a violation of the minimum necessary standard. For those looking for viable solutions to provide greater protection of the sensitive information contained in email, Absio is well worth a look.
If you need to copy some medical records that include PHI, you're probably on point when taking steps to ensure privacy. You make sure no one's around. You grab the documents right from the copier when you're done, you don't forget the originals, and you take the records where they need to go. No one sees them. No HIPAA violations here.
