What is HIPAA? What do I Need to Know for HIPAA Compliance?

What is HIPAA? How does HIPAA apply to my business and what must I do to ensure I’m HIPAA compliant?

Watch as our HIPAA Expert, Stephanie Rodrigue walks us through the ins and outs of HIPAA and PHI for Covered Entities and Business Associates.

HIPAA refers to laws that apply to Covered Entities and Business Associates regarding the privacy, security and accessibility of protected health information (PHI). Covered Entities and Business Associates use this information to provide services to the public such as medical care, and the filing and billing of medical clams. Covered Entities include doctor’s offices, hospitals, health care providers, health plans and healthcare cleaning houses. Because these entities are collecting health information directly from the patient, it’s probably obvious that they are responsible for protecting PHI.

But, there are actually many types of companies providing services such as data storage, analytics, marketing, billing, collections and practice management that are receiving PHI from a Covered Entity and are responsible to protect PHI under the HITECH act. The HIPAA/HITECH act is enforced by the US Office for Civil Rights (OCR) through a required notification, audit and fine program. If a Covered Entity or Business Associate does not have appropriate controls in place to protect PHI a breech of this information can occur and fines will be assessed by the OCR.

Understanding how to protect PHI is a critical responsibility of Covered Entities and Business Associates because HIPAA laws dictate how this private information is received, transmitted and stored and how it is made accessible to the patient.

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KirkpatrickPrice is a licensed CPA firm, PCI QSA, and a HITRUST CSF Assessor, registered with the PCAOB, providing assurance services to clients in more than 48 states, Canada, Asia, and Europe. The firm has over a decade of experience in information security and compliance assurance by performing assessments, audits, and tests that strengthen information security and internal controls. KirkpatrickPrice most commonly provides advice on SOC 1, SOC 2, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO 27001, FISMA, and CFPB frameworks.