Now that you have the required HIPAA policies and procedures in place, your employees must be trained to follow those documents. 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.
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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?
- At least annually;
- Any time your policies or procedures are updated; and
- 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.
We can help you plan and implement regular HIPAA compliance audits. Contact us today!
Come back next week for our final installment in this series on HIPAA Risk Assessments.
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