Between 2005 and 2019, nearly 250 million people were affected by a healthcare data breach.
Healthcare practices are responsible for protecting sensitive patient information. This includes making sure there are no potential risks to protected health information (PHI) kept on file at the practice.
So, how do you ensure that your practice is in compliance? Conducting a HIPAA risk assessment is the best way to prevent a dangerous breach.
If you’re wondering how you’ll have the time and knowledge to conduct an assessment to make sure you’re in HIPAA compliance, you’ve come to the right place.
Keep reading to learn 8 crucial tips for conducting a HIPAA risk assessment, to make sure you get through the process seamlessly.
1. Fully Understand What’s Expected
You can’t begin to perform a HIPAA risk assessment until you have a solid understanding of the requirements, what the process entails, and how often you need to perform it.
So, the first step is to spend some time educating yourself on all things involved with HIPAA compliance training and risk assessment.
What Is a HIPAA Risk Assessment?
In short, a risk assessment for HIPAA is a way for a healthcare practice to identify any areas in the business where PHI is at risk.
Once you do that, you’ll need to document steps to take to address the problems you’ve found.
There are specific pieces of criteria that HIPAA requires for a risk assessment, so make sure you’re familiar with that before moving forward with your assessment.
And remember, a HIPAA risk assessment is not a “one and done” scenario. You’ll need to perform this assessment annually, to make sure PHI isn’t at risk in your practice.
2. Organization Is Key
Once you have a better understanding of what you need to do, it’s time to get organized. Before you even begin the assessment, gather everything you can about your HIPAA policies and procedures.
This includes detailing where you store digital PHI, HIPAA training materials for staff members, etc.
By having all of this information in one place, it will be much easier to get through the assessment.
3. Use the Tools Available to You
If all of this sounds overwhelming so far, have no fear! There are convenient tools available to you to make the process of getting through the assessment easier than ever.
In fact, you can use the free Security Risk Assessment Tool (SRA Tool) provided by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the HHS Office for Civil Rights.
By using the tool, you can answer dozens of questions about your organization and how it handles PHI. From there, the tool will generate a report to help you identify risks in your policies and systems.
Don’t bother trying to reinvent the wheel when planning your assessment. Instead, use what’s available to you to make the process easier and to make sure you don’t overlook anything.
4. Document Everything
One thing you may realize in the midst of your assessment is that your practice isn’t doing a very good job of documentation when it comes to HIPAA policies.
Now is the time to change that.
Make sure you’ve clearly outlined all of your procedures in written documentation that is easy to access by employees.
Of course, that’s not to say that you should document your practices without actually following through on them. Make sure that what you document is true and that you follow your processes, no matter what.
5. Don’t Try to Tackle Everything at Once
Any project will seem overwhelming when you’re looking at it as a whole. This can make it easy to procrastinate in getting started.
Since you can’t afford to put off your HIPAA risk assessment, try breaking the project up into smaller chunks instead.
Schedule dedicated time each week or month on your calendar that you’ll set aside for your risk assessment. And stick to it! By working on it a little at a time, it will be much easier to get through it.
6. Learn From the Mistakes of Others
Because HIPAA risk assessments are required by law, your practice isn’t the only one going through this process.
Leading up to and during your assessment, it’s a good idea to read through articles from industry leaders about best practices from compliance.
In doing so, you’ll likely learn about some of the mistakes that other practices have made when it comes to HIPAA compliance. Use this as a learning experience of what not to do.
You can also read about how other companies handle the risk assessment process and use that as guidance during your own assessment.
7. Talk to Your Staff
It’s essential that the people working in your healthcare practice are well aware of HIPAA compliance laws and how your practice abides by them.
Have open and transparent conversations with your staff about your HIPAA policies and ask them if they have feedback about how to improve any existing systems.
Your staff is in the daily grind and they may notice opportunities for improvement that you have overlooked.
During these conversations, remind them about where to find HIPAA documentation, so they know where to look if they have questions.
8. Remember to Be Patient
As we mentioned above, a HIPAA risk assessment is not a one-time-only deal. This is an ongoing process that should evolve over time.
As such, you’ll notice that your HIPAA assessment documentation is actually more of a living document, with tweaks and changes added continually to improve how your practice operates.
Understand that when you perform your initial assessment, you may realize that there’s more work to be done than you would have expected.
That’s normal.
Most organizations face compliance issues at some point, and yours likely will as well. That’s why it’s critical to constantly evaluate what you’re doing and how you can improve.
Doing a risk assessment is the first step in improving.
A HIPAA Risk Assessment Doesn’t Have to Be Overwhelming
Now that you know about our best tips for getting through a HIPAA risk assessment, we hope you feel more confident about getting started.
Not only is a risk assessment required by law, but it’s one of the best things you can do to protect your practice and your patients’ PHI against a breach.
Looking for more helpful guides like this? Browse through our other articles before you go!