Knowing what to expect in a HIPAA audit is the key to passing it

[John Robinson]

Healthcare professionals have to mandatorily carry out HIPAA audits in a way that satisfies the regulatory authorities. This needs a thorough understanding of the exact meaning and import of words contained in HIPAA. They also need to get a grasp of the purpose and intent conveyed in HIPAA’s language. This is absolutely essential for both the Covered Entity and the Business Associate to ensure HIPAA survival.

Other challenges

A new challenge has come up. For 2017, the federal government is set to increase the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)’s budget by 10 percent with the intention of increasing the OCR’s resources for carrying out HIPAA audits and to also reinforce the OCR’s efforts towards HIPAA audits.

Also, the OCR now requires Business Associates and Covered Entities to show compliance with around 180 areas as part of Phase 2 of HIPAA with a response window of just 10 days. The OCR has also clearly stated that its audit protocol is no longer going to be satisfied with general and vague references to policy documents from Covered Entities and Business Associates when they are required to furnish documents to corroborate their work. They have to furnish the specific and exact documents that the OCR asks for during a HIPAA audit.

So, to ensure HIPAA survival, Covered Entities and Business Associates need to put a process in place and make sure they control and implement it with the maximum assiduousness and thoroughness. This is to be ensured all the time, every time.

Learning on what it takes for HIPAA survival

A proper grasp of the art of HIPAA survival will be the expert guidance a two-day seminar from GlobalCompliancePanel, a highly popular provider of professional trainings for the areas of regulatory compliance, will be offering. Want to benefit from it? Then, please enroll for it by visiting Knowing what to expect in a HIPAA audit is the key to passing it

The Director of this two-day seminar is Brian L Tuttle, a senior Compliance Consultant & IT Manager at InGauge Healthcare Solutions. The aim of this seminar is to arm regulatory compliance professionals with total guidance on how practice managers need to prepare for HIPAA audits. Since many changes have been suggested for 2017 for HIPAA; Brian will throw light on what changes can be expected under the Omnibus Rule and any other applicable updates for 2017.

The Director will bust the various misconceptions and myths about HIPAA, which are a major obstacle to ensuring HIPAA survival. He will explain real life audits conducted by the Federal government to explain HIPAA survival from his experience of having been in over a thousand risk assessments during his career.  He will also illustrate which the highest risk factors for being sued for wrongful disclosures of PHI are, and the manner in which patients are now using state laws to sue for wrongful disclosures.

During the course of this seminar, Brian will cover the following areas:

History of HIPAA

HITECH

HIPAA Omnibus Rule

How to perform a HIPAA Security Risk Assessment

What is involved in a Federal audit and how is it conducted

Risk factors for a federal audit

EHR and HIPAA

Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Planning

Business Associates and HIPAA

In depth discussions on IT down to the nuts and bolts

BYOD

Risk factors that can cause an audit (low hanging fruit)

New rules which grant states ability to sue citing HIPAA on behalf of a patient

New funding measures