Does Your Company Meet It HIPAA Compliance?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was designed to protect a patient’s personal information that’s held by health care organizations.

Protecting your data from cybercriminals is a different story, though.

In addition to complying with HIPAA standards, you need to make sure that your IT department is following the best practices when it comes to securing patient information from hackers.

In this guide, we’ll discuss a few ways to know if your company falls under HIPAA compliance and the best practices for IT HIPAA compliance.

Let’s dive in.

IT HIPAA Compliance And The Scope Of HIPAA

The first thing to know about IT HIPAA compliance is that it doesn’t have a universal scope. Instead, its regulations vary from company to company depending on how they work and what kind of information they hold.

For example, doctors’ offices and hospitals are covered by a different section of HIPAA than software developers. However, if these doctors’ offices use an app to store patient data, this would fall under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The good news is that there are certain standards all companies with HIPAA compliance need. For example, every company has to make sure they’re using up-to-date software that has security features in place. Otherwise, patient data may be at risk.

A data breach could cause a large number of consequences. For example, you may run into legal problems if someone can prove that you were negligent. It can also have a negative impact on your brand reputation.

Be sure that you keep this in mind moving forward. Even a single incident could cause problems for years to come.

The Golden Rule of HIPAA Compliance

As you might guess, the golden rule of HIPAA compliance for IT is straightforward. Depending on your scenario, these standards will dictate how you store patient data. For example, this could influence where you store your hard drives.

It could also dictate who is allowed to access computers at your facility.

These also include making sure your employees understand how patient data needs to be handled and have access only to what they need at work. A designated person should be responsible for HIPAA compliance in your company. Without these measures in place, there is a strong chance you will encounter problems.

For instance, let’s assume that your company does not have a person in charge of maintaining your IT regulations. This will cause there to be a lack of communication between employees, potentially resulting in an infringement.

You can check out this resource to learn more about IT security services.

Maintaining IT HIPAA Compliance Might Seem Complicated

Under certain circumstances, it may even seem impossible. However, the above guide about IT HIPAA compliance will ensure that you meet all of the necessary regulations. From here, you will avoid obstacles you would have encountered otherwise.

Be sure to check out the rest of our blog for other useful information about properly running a business.