To stay compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), healthcare facilities need to adhere to regulations throughout a patient’s entire data journey, from the creation of EHR or EMR records to their secure storage and transmission. In this way, smart organizations ensure no sensitive information is leaked to non-authorized parties.
It can be intimidating to keep up with changing HIPAA regulations, as healthcare organizations grapple with the sheer volume of patient data generated each day. In this blog, we’ll look at how you can protect patient data from the moment you receive it, so that you can learn how to maintain HIPAA compliance and manage documents with complete confidence.
Related: Navigating Compliance Challenges in Healthcare Documentation.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as ‘protected health information’) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically…to protect the privacy of protected health information….” Therefore, health care organizations must safeguard all electronic patient data. So how do you maintain HIPAA compliance and document management with confidence? Here are some important steps to take:
Get all stakeholders on board with compliance. Since HIPAA rules can be unwieldy and evolving, it’s essential to begin with a culture of compliance based on awareness and education. This includes regular training sessions for all authorized users to ensure everyone understands the current regulations, the threats that can endanger data security, and the ramifications of not being in compliance. Since a large number of security breaches are perpetrated by human error, knowledge is power. Ensure your staff is up-to-date on the best security practices and aware of the latest phishing schemes. With this education, they’ll be able to spot and stop threats early.
Since compliance depends upon proper handling of electronic documents, the key to staying compliant is keeping excellent records and ensuring they are secure from start to finish. Health care organizations operating with paper-based systems will benefit tremendously from moving to electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) and interfacing them with a document management software (DMS) to keep them secure and organized. A DMS can instantly file, search, filter, bundle, and organize important records like pre-authorizations, prescriptions, physician notes, incident reports, hospital discharges, and more. A DMS also has version control which is often updated every hour to ensure the correct, compliant forms are being used.
Since security is paramount to maintaining HIPAA compliance and document management, a DMS deploys robust end-to-end encryption and other security features to ensure confidentiality and integrity of patient information. End-to-end encryption protects documents, especially during transit to outside organizations when they’re most vulnerable. A bad actor intercepting an encrypted message will not be able to read or use it. Access controls let administrators determine which information authorized personnel can manage. User authentication measures like multi-factor authentication strengthen security with an additional layer of protection. With these features, a DMS safeguards patient data in storage and transmission.
Additionally, DMS systems can generate reporting for periodic audits which help health professionals and their IT teams identify and remedy any vulnerabilities in their systems and processes. Regular monitoring of access logs and audit trails shows which personnel accessed which records, when, and why. Not only does this information serve to alert administrators to suspicious activity, but it also provides a running record should documentation be required for HIPAA compliance.
Implementing a DMS can give you the confidence to handle HIPAA compliance with ease and assurance. With well-organized electronic documents, special security capabilities in place, and consistent audits and monitoring, a DMS can keep patient records protected every step of the way. DigiDoc goes beyond these measures with SOC 2 type 1 and SOC 2 type 2 certifications that mean our systems engineers, software architects, and developers adhere to all security best practices and always stay ahead of the cyber curve. We also carry extensive cyber insurance. Talk with us today about how we can help your organization confidently handle HIPAA compliance and document management.