How To Do a HIPAA Risk Assessment – Part 4

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is performing more and more HIPAA audits. How can you avoid getting hit with severe penalties from the government? The best way is to perform a complete HIPAA Risk Assessment, and to follow through with training and implementation.

Find out how to get compliant, and stay compliant in this multi-part series.  (To get this multi-part series delivered to your inbox CLICK HERE)

Now that you have required HIPAA policies and procedures in place, your employees must be trained. We help our clients stay on the right side of inevitable OCR audits by making sure all employees are adequately trained on the practice’s policies and procedures.

Do not be caught off guard. The OCR will expect that your staff is fully trained on all of your practice’s policies and procedures. 

The HIPAA Security Rule emphasizes the importance of training by requiring a security awareness and training program for all of the workforce.

Without the necessary training, your practice’s policies and procedures are useless.

Practices are required by the HIPAA Security Rule to ensure compliance on the part of their workforce. The way to demonstrate compliance to the OCR in the face of an audit is to train your employees.

When is training necessary?

  1. At least annually;
  2. Any time your policies or procedures are updated; and
  3. New employees must be trained upon joining your practice.

In the case of an audit, the OCR will expect to see documentation of your HIPAA trainings. We help our clients meet this barrier by providing them with training logs and outlines after we complete their security awareness and training program.

Staff members should receive copies or have access to the practice’s policies and procedures.

Not only is training required by the OCR, but sufficient training will also help your practice to avoid potential security breaches and to mitigate any damages from breaches that do occur.

In our next blog post, we will continue this series on HIPAA Risk Assessments.  To get this important series delivered directly to your mail box, 

Do you need help with your HIPAA Risk Assessment?  We can help. To contact us about your risk assessment or your other legal needs:  CLICK HERE.

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