With
April 14 the confirmed deadline for employers to comply with
HIPAA, serious steps need to be taken now to comply with privacy
rules aimed at protecting protected health information (PHI)
and healthcare records.
Who must comply with these new HIPAA privacy standards?
As required by Congress in HIPAA, the Privacy
Rule covers:
· Health plans
· Health care clearinghouses
· Health care providers
· Health care providers who conduct
certain financial and administrative transactions electronically.
These electronic transactions are those for which standards
have been adopted by the Secretary under HIPAA, such as electronic
billing and fund transfers.
Every Covered Entity, either Large or Small,
has the need to collect and discard protected health information
(PHI). Casually discarding PHI in the trash is no longer reasonable
and acceptable. All discarded information must be secured
before it is destroyed, otherwise it may fall into the hands
of the wrong parties.
Health facilities often pay a lot of money to store patient
records. To save space and money, you may decide to destroy
some old records. Shredding is the best way to dispose of
patient records. Implementing a LibertyShred document destruction
program is not particularly expensive, time-consuming and
will keep you HIPAA compliant.
Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are looking
to vendors to "step up to the plate," when it comes
to HIPAA compliance, according to John Bogen, founder and
CEO of HealthCIO and speaker at the HIPAA Bulletin for Management-sponsored
audio conference, HIPAA For Healthcare Vendors.
"Vendors, consultants and service
companies play a very active role when it comes to HIPAA compliance,"
he said.
No office is too small to benefit from using a secured shredding
firm. It is more economical and convenient than having your
employees handle, shred and dispose of the destroyed information.
A Secured Shredding Firm is a very inexpensive insurance.
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