Breaches and cybercrime have skyrocketed in the wake of COVID-19, especially in healthcare. It’s essential that you take steps now to protect your practice’s protected health information (PHI).
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It’s important to protect your practice from a breach. Breaches can result in a loss of patient trust and patients and large fines from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
So how do you protect your practice from breaches and cybercrime?
- Perform a risk assessment: Find your practices weaknesses by doing your risk assessment and putting your policies and procedures into place. Not only will this protect your practice against a breach, but it will reduce OCR fines in the event of an audit.
- Institute a practice-wide minimally necessary requirement: Make sure that your staff can only access patient data that is required for them to do their job duties. Make sure all of your staff have unique login credentials.
- Have an incident response team: This should start with your HIPAA Privacy and Security Officers. Plan for a breach and assign roles so that a breach can be dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
- Train your staff: We help our clients train their staff, as it is essential that your employees know about breaches, how breaches occur, and how they can be avoided.
- Practice makes perfect: Practice your breach plan often, so that everyone knows their role.
- Talk to your business associates: Make sure your business associate agreements are up to date and have clear contracts with all vendors. An open dialogue can ensure that breaches are managed quickly.
As a whole, the healthcare industry is being bombarded by breaches. It is essential that you are proactive to fight off breaches and have a plan in place in case your practice is breached.
We can help you create or update a HIPAA Compliance Plan that includes employee training programs. Contact us today!
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