HIPAA Compliant Medical Records Security

HIPAA in a "nutshell"

There are two HIPAA rules requirements; privacy (2003) and security (2005). Both rules require:

There are no absolute right and wrongs in either computer equipment or software. Usually there are four areas to examine:

There are penalties

The civil monetary penalty is up to $100 per person per violation and up to $25,000 per year total for the same type of violation. There is 30 days to correct the problem if it is not through willful neglect.

The criminal penalties are for "misuse" and for obtaining or using health information by "false pretenses" or with the intent to sell, transfer or use it for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm. These penalties are up to $250,000 and five years in jail.

Currently there is no real effective enforcement body.

Most of the requirements are common sense and providers do not need to be overly concerned but do require some basic steps like:

If you continue to use paper then there are a whole lot of areas to consider like how to monitor staff and fire protection (insurance is not enough.)

Finally, if there is a legal case brought forward a provider to protect themselves should have a trail of how the patient information was accessed. Medscribbler is one of very few that provides individual patient record access logs.

More HIPAA Information www.hipaa.org or www.hipaacomply.com