Introduction
Ensuring compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is paramount for healthcare organizations and their business associates. Through the United States HIPAA Security rule, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandates that covered entities, including providers, conduct a comprehensive security risk assessment by December 31st of every year. These assessments are designed to assure HIPAA risk management compliance with its administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. To help with this process, the HHS has now made the latest security risk assessment tool, version 3.4, available at no charge. The article below describes why and how this tool can help you get started toward meeting your end-of-year HIPAA risk management requirements for 2023.
Why Use the HIPAA Security Risk Assessment Tool?
The HIPAA Security Rule obligates covered entities such as licensed practitioners and their business associates to undertake a systematic risk assessment. The security risk assessment tool helps identify and evaluate the potential risks and vulnerabilities of processing electronic protected health information (ePHI).
Demystifying Mandatory HIPAA Risk Assessments
Since COVID restrictions have been lessened, taking a few minutes to attend to your security risk management is wise. As the incidence of cybercrime escalates dramatically, updates to your HIPAA practices are needed to ensure appropriate HIPAA risk management. The security risk assessment is the quickest and easiest to complete of the steps required by the recently released NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
Regular updates of your HIPAA risk assessment can be crucial for protecting your client’s sensitive information and remaining compliant with federal regulations. Plus, it is quick, easy, and free. Let’s unpack the details.
What is a HIPAA Risk Management?
Simply put, HIPAA risk management systematically reviews your practice’s processes and protocols for handling Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI could be anything from a patient’s medical records to billing details. The purpose is to identify potential weaknesses that might put this sensitive information at risk.
Under HIPAA, you must routinely perform these assessments to ensure ongoing compliance. The good news is that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just released Version 3.4 of its free HIPAA risk assessment tool, which walks you through the assessment step-by-step and helps you with documentation.
Why is It Important for Behavioral Health Providers?
For behavioral health providers, the patient-provider relationship is often built on trust and confidentiality. A breach in protecting patient information can damage this trust and have legal ramifications for your practice. Plus, the consequences can be unpleasant once you have crossed the line and HIPAA has been violated. See What Happens If You Violate HIPAA? for details.
Steps Involved in Using the HIPAA Security Risk Assessment Tool
Luckily, understanding complicated legalese or fumbling with complicated processes is unnecessary. Simply access the free security risk assessment tool website the HHS offers to walk you through the eight required steps below. Once within the security assessment tool, follow these eight steps to quickly and easily complete your required HIPAA risk assessment:
1. Scope the Assessment
The first step involves identifying all areas where PHI is stored, accessed, and transmitted.
