HIPAA compliance is essential in the healthcare industry because without it, patient data could become visible to malicious actors. With HIPAA guidelines in place, patients know that their medical data is protected and private with appropriate safeguards.
Creating your own HIPAA policies and compliance training procedures takes a lot of work but is often necessary for the healthcare field. Although you should tailor compliance training to individuals or certain jobs, there is plenty about HIPAA development that all medical staff should know.
If you’re designing your own program, use this guide to assist in developing your lesson plan or video.
What is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that sets the standard for patient data collection and security. HIPAA ensures that sensitive patient data isn’t disclosed to another third party without their knowledge or consent.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule addresses the disclosure and use of medical information by “covered entities” subject to another HIPAA rule “the Privacy Rule”. The purpose of the Privacy Rule is to make sure a person’s health information is safe and available to those who need it.
Why do I Need HIPAA Training for Employees?
As a federal requirement, any industry or person that frequently handles patient medical data should receive training. When you decide to implement HIPAA training, you’ll do your part in ensuring that you and your company keep patient information safe.
Who Needs HIPAA Compliance Training?
In “What is HIPAA,” we addressed the term “covered entities.” All covered entities are subject to the Privacy Rule and need HIPAA compliance training.
Here are some notable examples of covered entities:
- Healthcare Providers: If a healthcare provider electronically transmits health data in connection with transactions, they must be HIPAA compliant.
- Health Insurance Providers: Any entity that provides or pays for the cost of medical care. Insurance professionals like PolicyScout® only recommend health plans from providers that maintain HIPAA compliance regulations, so your information stays protected.
- Healthcare Clearinghouses: As a designated intermediary between healthcare providers and business associates, their security measures must reach HIPAA levels.
- Business Associates: Entities that offer functions, services, or activities that include data analysis or billing need to also have a highly secured server to capture patient data.
Medical receptionists, administrators, nurses, doctors, surgeons, and other job positions will also need HIPAA compliance training, even if they aren’t directly handling electronic charts.
Is HIPAA Compliance Training Mandatory?
Yes, HIPAA compliance training is mandatory. Even if you irregularly receive patient data, you still have to receive training ASAP. The Privacy Rule states that each new member of the workforce must receive compliance training within a reasonable period or after a policy change.
Is Annual HIPAA Compliance Training Required?
Under HIPAA’s Security Rule, there’s no designated time period where you’re supposed to re-issue another training session. However, annual training sessions may be enough to meet HIPPA’s periodic requirements, as well as go over any policy changes.
What to Include in HIPAA Compliance Training
HIPAA has strict guidelines for what to include in your compliance training. To start your lesson plan, begin with a basic HIPAA overview, definitions, and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
These topics will serve as a baseline for explaining regulatory rules, patient rights, and computer safety.
What Does HIPPA Protect
HIPAA majorly protects patients' privacy by prohibiting others from misusing or accessing their data without consent. HIPAA gives patients access to copies of their health information. If a malicious actor has access to their information, the healthcare entity must notify them.
Why we Need HIPAA Protection
Everyone has the right to privacy, but if there isn’t a way to stop individuals from hacking or misusing sensitive medical data, there could be consequences for the patient. What's more, medical identity theft may occur from a stolen patient file.
How we Maintain HIPAA Compliance
As the largest section, maintaining HIPAA compliance will take up the most of your time.
Employers should cover a wide variety of topics, including the following:
- Main HIPAA regulatory rules
- HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule
- The Privacy Rule
- The Security Rule
- Patient Rights
- Disclosure Rules
- Computer safety/social media
- Compliance checklist
- State laws regarding privacy
- State laws regarding cybersecurity
Violation consequences, prevention, and knowledge of being a HIPAA-compliant employee are the most important topics you’ll cover. HIPAA compliance training also involves the electronic transmission of or access to patient records made possible with a robust computer server.
Employers are legally obligated to evaluate HIPAA security and privacy protocols. Any weak spots could pose a problem in the future, so handle them promptly.
How to Start a HIPAA Training Program
Effective HIPAA training programs let employees participate in the process. Give your staff members the chance to voice their concerns so you’ll have accurate answers to the following:
Where do you Have Compliance Issues?
As a member of the healthcare industry, your staff is likely HIPAA compliant to some extent. However, it’s crucial to evaluate online security and employee training protocols because they’ll give you a good starting point for where compliance issues occur.
How Can you Improve Compliance Issues Through Training?
Do you have a strong security system, but employees miss a HIPAA compliance step? Or, is your security system the problem? Now that you have an idea of where gaps in training exist, you can design a training program around fixing those specific issues.
What Can you do if Your HIPAA Training Program Requires Tweaking?
Unless you get it right on the first try, you’ll likely have to tweak your program until your employees find the best way to retain HIPAA compliance information.
Try adding the following tips to your next training session:
- Keep training lessons under an hour.
- Avoid providing too many handouts.
- Use video, quizzes, and presentations.
- Ask questions to keep employees engaged.
- Make HIPAA training as simple as possible.
Some of the best HIPPA training courses combine interactive elements with lectures.
Conclusion
All healthcare providers should want to conduct HIPAA compliance training in their business. Not only is HIPAA compliance mandatory, but it also helps protect you, your patients, and your company from malicious actors who want to steal private data and information.
About the Author
Rupert Jones has a background working for major financial institutions, and is now an advocate of the financial independence movement. A passionate speaker, Rupert believes in helping individuals and businesses achieve financial freedom, and is determined to bring his insights to the World.
