Is Your Practice Organized And Properly Prepared For An Unexpected HIPAA Audit? Preparing for an HIPAA audit can be a time-consuming experience, but it is absolutely necessary. It’s a clear fact, if your practice is prepared for an HIPAA audit you and all medical personnel can certainly perform your medical duties far more efficiently, and certainly more effectively. The first step is to ensure organization within your practice. The second step is to understand an HIPAA audit isn’t so much an inquisition, as it is a means to ensure the excellent coordination of patient care and privacy at all times. One of the more critical steps in this process lies in understanding you don’t have to receive an expected date for an audit at all. Your practice doesn’t have to be selected either HIPPA audits can be enforced without notice, but under normal circumstances there is a 15 day window to prepare. It’s especially important to understand that the primary goal of the HIPAA audit is to guarantee all procedures are being followed to protect and preserve the rights, civil rights and the confidentiality of all patients. In order to safeguard privacy, audits are almost always sporadic and spontaneous. Furthermore, comprehending what an HIPAA auditor will be looking for will greatly improve the potential for your practice to meet all HIPAA regulations and requirements for compliancy. When HIPAA awareness becomes an integral part of your medical office environment, all-medical personnel will be better trained and enabled to follow a HIPAA compliancy plan. You can protect the integrity and compliancy of your medical practice when you take the right steps to begin implementing a method to keep everyone educated and
updated on the new HIPAA laws.This does improve quality patient care on every level. You can also be certain the confidence of employee’s within your practice will rise when there is a solid preparation plan in place for the comprehension of HIPAA and all that it entails. The following tips and techniques will help prepare your practice for a potential HIPAA audit. Tips And Strategies To Prepare Your Practice For An Unexpected HIPAA Audit Tip 1: Incorporate Programs to Monitor Patient Privacy, Confidentiality And Security Now, integrating educational programs and carrying out specific meetings about HIPAA can improve awareness among your staff and patients. When an HIPAA awareness program is properly integrated into your office environment it enables the HIPAA regulations to be better met. Since HIPAA can change quite often, awareness classes and software can keep all employees and general staff updated without taking away from patient care. Tip 2: Remain Updated And Organize Proper Documentation At All Times HIPAA auditors will request specific documentation from your practice, and they will expect this to be well organized and prepared. This illustrates your practice stays ahead of HIPAA and has no qualms with staying compliant. In other words, your practice’s documentation is your complete evidence that tells you follow audit protocols. Following this, an auditor should not need to ask further questions, it should all be in the paperwork. This will clearly show if you’re not prepared, because your plans, procedures and other documents will not be cohesive. A lack of organization becomes apparent fast to an auditor, so don’t let anything slip through the cracks. Without the necessary
documentation, HIPAA auditors will assume your practice hasn’t gone through the correct process, which could clearly lead to penalties and other fines.
Tip 3: Keep Your Risk Analysis Updated Consistently
Your practice can run a mock audit alongside a risk analysis to ensure you’re up to
par with all HIPAA requirements and policies. A mock audit will prepare your entire staff on what to expect, what documents will be needed, how well the security
system operates in case of a breach, and more. If weaknesses in privacy and security exist then your practice can work to improve these and meet HIPAA protocol before an audit occurs. Furthermore, risk assessment happens to be one of the more challenging of areas for a practice.
Running a risk analysis will keep you and your staff informed of areas where the
most critical needs are. For instance, staying on top of data collection for improved flow of health information, outlining risks of your practice, and even the
determination of a potential breach or security threat. Any practice is accountable
for their health information’s security and the risks associated with these. It is also
recommended to not follow an analysis like a checklist, because an auditor wouldn’t.
Tip 4: Evaluate Your HIPAA Training For Your Practice You want to make certain that your entire staff does receive the proper HIPAA
training and guidance to ensure there is consistent compliancy throughout your
facility. You practice should not only offer ongoing compliancy training, but also it should be an ongoing, engaging activity among staff. Some make the mistake of
having this as a one-time event at the hiring process. Don’t do that! Make certain
you keep appropriate training constantly available to your team practice! If you have to ask yourself when the last refresher course was
The Accountability Of Your Practice And Meeting HIPAA Compliancy Keep everything professional in your practice, and remember, an HIPAA audit is not an investigation and it certainly doesn’t mean any form of complaint has been filed against your practice. The design of these audits is solely meant to improve upon compliancy of varied practices across the board.
If your practice follows through with a comprehensive examination of your current HIPAA compliancy throughout the year, you’ll have no reason to worry or dread a potential audit. These evaluations can help you improve management and
organization within your practice, so don’t let this fill you with dread. Be prepared
and ensure your existing HIPAA Compliance program is up to standards to avoid any miscommunication or concerns from auditors. It’s just that simple!
About the Author RecordLinc allows Dental Management Software Professionals to securely and easily send electronic referrals, patient transfers, and track treatment plans between dental practices in a HIPAA compliant portal. MyDentalFiles ties directly into RecordLinc and allows patients to access their dental files, fill out electronic forms prior to visiting a dental office, and securely receive secure communication from dentists.