HIPAA’s compliance expectations from Business Associate

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regards the Business Associate as a major player. HIPAA defines the Business Associate (BA) as either an organization or a person who works with or provides service to a Covered Entity, who in turn is defined as one who handles or discloses Protected Health Information (PHI).

So, a Business Associate is any person or entity that is involved in creating, receiving, maintaining or transmitting PHI to a Covered Entity for a purpose or activity or function as mandated and regulated by the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Getting compliance right is complicated

While there is no ambiguity about the definition of a Business Associate; what is vague and confusing is the set of roles, responsibilities and requirements expected from a BA. HIPAA has a lot of expectations from the Business Associate. It expects total and complete compliance with the requirements it has set out for Business Associates.

The HITECH Act has recently made changes and updates, raising the bar of expectations from Business Associates. The reasoning for these changes is that the role of the Business Associate is critical, and its functions need to keep changing from time to time to accommodate the changes in technology, best practices, etc. As a result, it has extremely stringent mandates regarding the way a Business Associate handles and uses health information, which is confidential and highly valuable.

Compliance is not negotiable

A Business Associate has to show compliance with a wide range of regulatory requirements. The core areas of HIPAA compliance, such as privacy obligations, security standards, and breach notification requirements, are all where the Business Associate’s work is heavily regulated. A small deviation is viewed very seriously by the OCR. Punitive actions from the OCR are damaging to the Business Associate. The only way of avoiding these penal actions is to be completely compliant with the HIPAA expectations.

All these do not mean that Business Associates should dread HIPAA compliance implementation. They can become successful at their business if they get a complete grasp of HIPAA’s compliance requirements. They need clarity on a number of areas. Once their problem areas are addressed, they are sure to become successful in their business.

Come and get complete understanding of HIPAA compliance for Business Associates

It is with the aim of imparting this understanding that GlobalCompliancePanel, a leading provider of professional trainings for all the areas of regulatory compliance, will be organizing a two-day seminar. Jay Hodes, who is a leading expert in HIPAA compliance and President of Colington Consulting, which provides HIPAA consulting services for healthcare providers and Business Associates, will be the Director of this seminar.

In order to get a complete grasp of the compliance requirements that HIPAA has for Business Associates, please register for this highly valuable seminar by logging on to http://www.globalcompliancepanel.com/control/globalseminars/%7Eprod....

Total understanding of the requirements for Business Associates

The main aim of this course is to clear the confusions about the roles, requirements and responsibilities of the Business Associate, a role that is often shrouded in haziness. it is only when this is done that Business Associates will have the confidence to enter into contracts for providing services as a vendor or subcontractor. Jay will equip participants with complete understanding of what they must put in place to meet these requirements. In other words, he will help them get complete clarity on HIPAA compliance regulations for Business Associates.

The seminar will be very in-depth, as Jay will start with an understanding of the basics, such as why HIPAA was created, which will help participants get to the deeper aspects of HIPAA compliance requirements. Over the course of these two days, Jay Hodes will cover the following areas at this seminar: