HIPAA
Overview of HIPAA
HIPAA is a federal regulation that practices must uphold, and The Bienville Group can aid in helping your practice with this. HIPAA was created to protect your patient’s sensitive information. The Bienville Group can provide frequent updates and trainings for your staff to uphold these standards.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It is a federal law that protects sensitive patient health information. Through this act, patient information cannot be shared or disclosed without the patient’s consent and / or knowledge.
Why is HIPAA important?
HIPAA is important because it protects your patient’s sensitive information by making sure that providers, health plans, etc. are in control of who sees important health information and who it can be shared with. This was also important as practices moved away from paper charts to electronic health records (EHR). Through this act, administrative healthcare functions have been streamlined, which allows for healthcare to be more efficient and health information to be protected. Every provider is held to the same standards nationwide, so this also guarantees that patient health information is protected as it is transferred to other providers, plans, or entities.
How do I ensure that our practice is HIPAA compliant?
The first step to ensuring that your practice is HIPAA compliant is to call The Bienville Group for help. From there, we will go through and assess your policies and procedures, and then we will suggest practices to implement to minimize your risk. Regulations are frequently changing, so your policies must be regularly monitored. These changes to regulations can be difficult to monitor by yourself.
What happens if my practice is not HIPAA compliant?
Your practice not being HIPAA compliant or having data breaches can be very costly. Your patients expect their information to be safely kept and The Bienville Group can help you safeguard this.
What are the next steps to guarantee that the practice is HIPAA compliant?
To guarantee that your practice is HIPAA compliant, give us a call here at The Bienville Group.
Our first step will be to evaluate all of the information about your practice that we can collect. We can then complete the necessary risk assessment and further, a HIPAA security risk assessment. Once this report is complete, then we can determine the risks associated with certain policies and procedures. Our goal is to minimize risks and weaknesses and when we can see where the risks are, we can help your practice to make the necessary changes. Since regulations are always changing, your practice must be ready to adapt as well.
Why choose The Bienville Group for HIPAA Compliance consulting?
The Bienville Group provides frequent trainings and support for your staff. This helps ease the burden of your practice spending the time, effort, and stress of following these regulations.
HIPAA compliance is mandatory and should be taken seriously. For a consultation with The Bienville Group about this, give us a call today and we can help you get started in protecting your patients and your practice.