Navigating the Healthcare Landscape 7 Essential HIPAA Compliance Tips

Key terms to know and how to prepare your organization

In medicine, knowledge is power. The knowledge of a patient’s history and symptoms leads to a diagnosis. The knowledge of the diagnosed disease leads to a treatment plan. Like any powerful thing, this knowledge must be handled with care. HIPAA was created, in part, to establish standards for that care.

HIPAA’s massive body of text may be intimidating. But with a few key HIPAA compliance tips at your side, it will be easier to approach and integrate compliance into your business. This guide will help you navigate what HIPAA means for your organization.

7 HIPAA compliance tips to help protect your business

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It was initially signed into law in 1996 but has been revised several times since then.

Today, HIPAA sets technical safeguards and enforcement rules for providers, insurers, and employers. Through these, HIPAA defines protected information and how that info should be handled. The following HIPAA compliance tips will help you know how to approach these standards.

1. Learn key HIPAA terms

Before you consider how HIPAA applies to your business, you need to understand its terminology. Here are four commonly cited terms to start with:

• e-PHI: Electronic protected health information. This is individually identifiable health information that is created, received, maintained, or transmitted in electronic form. Some common examples include health records and physician orders.
• Covered entities: Health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. Despite the name, they are not the only ones to whom HIPAA applies.
• Business associates: Any person or business to whom covered entities disclose e-PHI. This may only be done to help the covered entity carry out its healthcare functions.
• HITECH Act: This 2009 act strengthened privacy protections for e-PHI. Its passing helped to build a modern, national network of health records.

2. Start with the HIPAA Privacy Rule

Reading through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HIPAA Privacy Rule Summary is another great HIPAA compliance tip. The summary presents much of the act’s information in easy-to-understand language. Two general key takeaways from the Privacy Rule are a) what constitutes e-PHI and b) how it can be used.

While we’ve already covered what e-PHI is, it’s also important to know what e-PHI is not. For instance, the use of de-identified health information is not restricted by HIPAA. This is why researchers can still use aggregated health records when working on medical studies.

3. Understand the HIPAA Security Rule

The HIPAA Security Rule generally establishes overall standards businesses must follow to protect e-PHI. Its protections are meant to be flexible and scalable across organizations, which is why the Security Rule focuses on mandating the minimum standards organizations must follow. These standards help reduce the risk of improper disclosure of e-PHI.

Among other things, the standards provide a baseline of protection against accidental disclosure and deliberate intrusion. While the act itself is lengthy and may be difficult to parse, you can start with the HHS’ summary of the Security Rule here.

4. Know what and where your e-PHI is

You have a solid understanding of HIPAA fundamentals. Now it’s time to apply them to your business. The first step is to identify what types of e-PHI your organization handles. Do you work with patient health records directly? Do you store treatment histories or ID numbers?

Next, determine how that e-PHI is stored. Is it kept in records along with non-protected information, such as time of visits? If not, how is it identified and linked with the patient to whom it belongs? Are these records stored in servers on your premises, or are they uploaded to a third-party cloud service provider? In the latter case, you will likely need to sign a legally compliant HIPAA business associate agreement and, among other things, ensure your cloud provider encrypts all of your e-PHI.

5. Run through a HIPAA risk assessment

According to IBM, the average global cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million. That represents a 15% increase over three years. To better shield your business from potential consequences both monetary and otherwise, consider conducting a HIPAA risk assessment.

You do not necessarily need to hire outside help to conduct this analysis. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a free HIPAA Security Rule Toolkit. This toolkit helps organizations understand their requirements. It also helps you determine how your current systems implement those requirements.

6. Keep up to date on new developments

The scope of the technology in modern medicine continues to grow. Laws surrounding its use continue to develop apace. In short, like any piece of United States legislation, it is best to treat HIPAA as a living document.

Consider checking in on the official HIPAA News Releases & Bulletins page once or twice a month. This will allow you to stay up to date on new developments straight from the source. Industry periodicals also offer an excellent way to keep an eye on developments that are more directly relevant to your organization.

It may be tempting to shunt these responsibilities off to your IT department. However, proper implementation of HIPAA best practices requires continued investment and action across your entire organization.

7. Work with trusted partners

Implementing and maintaining HIPAA compliance is a demanding process. Working with partners who have a proven track record in records management can give you a better footing.

At Ricoh, we’re proud of our decades of experience in driving digitization through innovation. We provide the tools companies need to manage their records more safely and efficiently. That includes creating high-quality paper documents with our line of business printers. It extends to our industry-leading document scanners.

Schedule a call with our team today to learn more about how Ricoh products can help your business reach its compliance goals.

Note: Information and external links are provided for your convenience and for educational purposes only, and shall not be construed, or relied upon, as legal or financial advice. PFU America, Inc. makes no representations about the contents, features, or specifications on such third-party sites, software, and/or offerings (collectively “Third-Party Offerings”) and shall not be responsible for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of such Third-Party Offerings. Please consult with a licensed professional regarding your specific situation as regulations may be subject to change.