Contracts

HIPAA Documentation Requirements and 8 Considerations for Business Owners

In this last installment of our series on HIPAA compliance and best practices for your business, we’ve detailed the documentation requirements and 8 important considerations every business owner should think about.

Does HIPAA require any specific documents? As discussed in previous posts, HIPAA provides for a number of “best practices” which include various documents that you should use to help avoid HIPAA violations. Any documents containing protected health information or policies that govern your use and disclosure of protected health information should be stored, either in written or electronic format, for a period of 6 years.

The following is a list of documents you should consider using in your business in order to avoid any inadvertent disclosure or use of protected health information....

— Gavin Johnson

Business Startup

HIPAA Administrative Requirements and Best Practices

To follow up last week’s blog post about HIPAA’s Privacy Rule, we’ve boiled down some of the most important administrative requirements for maintaining compliance with HIPAA. Below is a non-exhaustive list of best practices for your business.

Carefully develop and implement policies and procedures regarding any protected health information (PHI) that are designed to comply with the Privacy Rule. If you’re not sure about your current policies or are in the process of developing new policies for your business, you should contact a qualified attorney to review your policies. Implement appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of PHI. With the increasing reliance on electronic data storage and processing, it’s becoming more and more important to have a comprehensive...

— Gavin Johnson

Business Startup

Learning the Basics of HIPAA- Are You a Covered Entity?

If you’re running a business and you deal with any health information, you are likely aware of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Today’s post provides a summary of HIPAA, who it affects, what it protects, and what is permitted under the Privacy Rule.

Goals of HIPAA The major goal of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule is to assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high quality health care while protecting the public’s health and well being.

Basic Principle A major purpose of the Privacy Rule is to define and limit the circumstances in which an individual’s protected heath information (PHI) may be used or disclosed by covered entities. A covered entity...

— Gavin Johnson