Electronic Health Records Errors – How to Avoid HIPAA Trouble
HIPAA Trouble and EHR Implementation – How to Avoid Legal, Ethical Issues
Learn how you can avoid legal issues with electronic medical records management. Get tips on best practices to manage EHR / EMR security, privacy concerns and avoid problems causing HIPAA violations.
HIPPA and the EMR EHR Environment
HIPAA trouble due to errors in managing electronic health records can be costly. Every clinician and EMR software user needs to have a solid understanding of how to comply with HIPAA regulations. Lack of knowledge is a poor defense against alleged HIPAA violations. What you don’t know about EMR and HIPAA could cause you to make mistakes that result in civil or criminal charges, large fines, and possible licensing problems.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known to as HIPAA, set federal standards for the electronic exchange, privacy and security of health information. This covers "Protected Health Information " held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral.
The Security Rule and Your Potential Risks
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule requires that covered entities and its business associates conduct a risk assessment of their healthcare organization as part of their risk management process.2
What is Risk Assessment?
Video courtesy of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
How to Do a Risk Analysis
To do a risk analysis you can utilize a free online Security Risk Assessment Tool (SRA Tool). This tool was created by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), working with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Use the following link to download the SRA Tool from the HealthIT.gov website.
Why you need to do a risk assessment.: Doing an initial risk assessment can give you actionable information for avoiding legal problems with HIPAA non-compliance. Acting now to identify and resolve issues likely puts an end to immediate risks of civil or criminal liabilities.
Basic things you need to know about Security Risk Analysis: The introduction of new programs or regulations often generates unnecessary concerns and misinformation. The following is a list "Top 10 Myths of Security Risk Analysis ", provided on the HealthIT.gov website.
Top 10 Myths of Security Risk Analysis
1. The security risk analysis is optional for small providers.
False. All providers who are "covered entities" under HIPAA are required to perform a risk analysis. In addition, all providers who want to receive EHR incentive payments must conduct a risk analysis.
2. Simply installing a certified EHR fulfills the security risk analysis MU requirement.
False. Even with a certified EHR, you must perform a full security risk analysis. Security requirements address all electronic protected health information you maintain, not just what is in your EHR.
3. My EHR vendor took care of everything I need to do about privacy and security.
False. Your EHR vendor may be able to provide information, assistance, and training on the privacy and security aspects of the EHR product. However, EHR vendors are not responsible for making their products compliant with HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. It is solely your responsibility to have a complete risk analysis conducted.
4. I have to outsource the security risk analysis.
False. It is possible for small practices to do risk analysis themselves using self-help tools. However, doing a thorough and professional risk analysis that will stand up to a compliance review will require expert knowledge that could be obtained through the services of an experienced outside professional.
5. A checklist will suffice for the risk analysis requirement.
False. Checklists can be useful tools, especially when starting a risk analysis, but they fall short of performing a systematic security risk analysis or documenting that one has been performed.
6. There is a specific risk analysis method that I must follow.
False. A risk analysis can be performed in countless ways. OCR has issued Guidance on Risk Analysis Requirements of the Security Rule. This Guidance assists organizations in identifying and implementing the most effective and appropriate safeguards to secure e-PHI.
7. My security risk analysis only needs to look at my EHR.
False. Review all electronic devices that store, capture, or modify electronic protected health information. Include your EHR hardware and software and devices that can access your EHR data (e.g., your tablet computer, your practice manager’s mobile phone). Remember that copiers also store data. Please see U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance on remote use.
8. I only need to do a risk analysis once.
False. To comply with HIPAA, you must continue to review, correct or modify, and update security protections. For more on reassessing your security practices, please see the Reassessing Your Security Practice in a Health IT Environment.
9. Before I attest for an EHR incentive program, I must fully mitigate all risks.
False. The EHR incentive program requires correcting any deficiencies (identified during the risk analysis) during the reporting period, as part of its risk management process.
10. Each year, I’ll have to completely redo my security risk analysis.
False. Perform the full security risk analysis as you adopt an EHR. Each year or when changes to your practice or electronic systems occur, review and update the prior analysis for changes in risks. Under the Meaningful Use Programs, reviews are required for each EHR reporting period. For EPs, the EHR reporting period will be 90 days or a full calendar year, depending on the EP’s year of participation in the program.
How to Avoid Common HIPAA Compliance Problems
The next step in avoiding HIPAA trouble is implementing measures to prevent new compliance issues. Next, we offer ideas and tips for a proactive approach to maintaining HIPAA compliance for electronic health records.
Create an EMR Compliance Checklist
Protecting your patient’s medical records starts with implementing measures that address key areas of PHI security. Your guide and checklist should be used to educate persons accessing and managing data, and govern the workflow practices.
Be certain to do periodic reviews of, and make appropriate updates to, your guide and checklist. Part of your internal review process should be conducting a new Risk Assessment using the SRA Tool mentioned above.
Use the HIPAA Security Rule
You can refer to the HIPAA Security Rule to develop a compliance checklist. The HIPAA Security Series (PDF’s) identify three specific areas that must be properly managed. Per the HIPAA Security Series, "While there is no one approach that will guarantee successful implementation of all the security standards, this series aims to explain specific requirements, the thought process behind those requirements, and possible ways to address the provisions."3 These three areas are as follows:
1. Administrative Safeguards
The Security Rule defines administrative safeguards as, "administrative actions, and policies and procedures, to manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect electronic protected health information and to manage the conduct of the covered entity’s workforce in relation to the protection of that information."
The Administrative Safeguards comprise over half of the HIPAA Security requirements. As with all the standards in this rule, compliance with the Administrative Safeguards standards will require an evaluation of the security controls already in place, an accurate and thorough risk analysis, and a series of documented solutions derived from a number of factors unique to each covered entity.4
2. Physical Safeguards
The Security Rule defines physical safeguards as "physical measures, policies, and procedures to protect a covered entity’s electronic information systems and related buildings and equipment, from natural and environmental hazards, and unauthorized intrusion." The standards are another line of defense (adding to the Security Rule’s administrative and technical safeguards) for protecting EPHI.
When evaluating and implementing these standards, a covered entity must consider all physical access to EPHI. This may extend outside of an actual office and could include workforce members’ homes or other physical locations where they access EPHI.5
3. Technical Safeguards
The Security Rule defines technical safeguards in § 164.304 as "the technology and the policy and procedures for its use that protect electronic protected health information and control access to it."
As outlined in previous papers in this series, the Security Rule is based on the fundamental concepts of flexibility, scalability and technology neutrality. Therefore, no specific requirements for types of technology to implement are identified. The Rule allows a covered entity to use any security measures that allow it reasonably and appropriately to implement the standards and implementation specifications. A covered entity must determine which security measures and specific technologies are reasonable and appropriate for implementation in its organization.6
Specifics – 5 Common Causes for HIPAA Trouble
Refer to the following list to learn about common causes for HIPAA trouble related to PHI management. Every practice should discuss these types of things with their employees and vendors to mitigate occurrences of violations.
1. Staff PHI Disclosures. Whether inadvertent or deliberate, employees should discuss a patient’s PHI only when necessary. Every employee should refrain from discussing patient information outside of the workplace, or where uninvolved parties can hear or see the information. Although it should be obvious, employees should never discuss patient information or post related images on social media, blogs or forums.
2. Loss of Control of Information. There are many ways that you can lose control of electronic health records. The worst case scenario is a full data breach involving your computer network being hacked, or a system breach for cloud-based file storage.
A second way of losing electronic information is when information is taken out of your facility. This could be emailing or texting information where it may be accessed by someone other than the intended recipient.
A third way of losing information is when information stored on devices is lost due to theft or burglary. If you feel it is necessary to have PHI on laptops, tablets, phones, or home computers, you should have strong passwords on every device. Keeping health record information on removable devices (thumb drives, external hard drives, etc.) is extremely risky.
3. Negligence & Careless Actions. Problematic disclosure of information often occurs within a medical practice or clinic. This happens when employees inadvertently place or leave files where information can be viewed by other patients, vendors or other unauthorized third-parties. An example is open files on a workspace near a check-in area or check-out area.
4. Unauthorized Access For any number of reasons, employees may engage in unnecessary or unauthorized access to patient health information. Unauthorized access problems could be created by third parties such as vendors, cleaning staff, maintenance technicians, etc.
5. Casual Thinking: Some employees lack an understanding of HIPAA regulations or simply do not apply personal discipline in their work. All employees should be trained in best practices, regulations, standards, and laws regarding health records management. This includes when it is appropriate to share or transfer information, how to confirm consent and authority to provide information to others.
Every medical practice, clinic or facility utilizing electronic health records software needs a formal approach for total HIPAA compliance. HIPAA trouble can be avoided by educating your staff on how to prevent electronic health records errors.
FOOTNOTES & CREDITS
- 1 Office for Civil Rights, "Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule", July 26, 2013, Available from HHS.gov
- 2 HealthIT.gov, "Security Risk Assessment", November 1, 2018, Available from HealthIT.gov
- 3 HHS.gov, "HIPAA Security Series", March 2007, Available from Dept. of Health & Human Services
- 4 HHS.gov Website, "Security Standards: Administrative Safeguards", March 2007, Available from Dept. of Health & Human Services
- 5 HHS.gov Website, "Security Standards: Physical Safeguards", March 2007, Available from Dept. of Health & Human Services
- 6 HHS.gov Website, "Security Standards: Technical Safeguards", March 2007, Available from Dept. of Health & Human Services
Medical Revenue Cycle Management
Revenue Cycle Management
Revenue Cycle Management is a key part of managing the business side of a medical practice. The best medical practices, clinics and hospitals have mastered merging the clinical and business functions. RCM goes far beyond simply managing billing. RCM enables you to see where your money is going. From top level views to line-item details you can get the information that enables you to better manage your business.
What is the Medical Revenue Cycle
The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)
defines revenue cycle as "All administrative and clinical functions that contribute to the capture, management, and collection of patient service revenue."
Effectively this means the revenue cycle encompasses all revenue related components of a patient’s account.
What is Revenue Cycle Management?
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) refers to the financial management of your practice relative to income from services. Leveraging the power of medical billing software your practice can manage all aspects of the process. As the name implies, revenue cycle management is the process for managing every step of the revenue generation and collections process.
The Importance of Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare
Improving your RCM process almost certainly improves your bottom line. RCM management tools for healthcare are included in the top revenue cycle management software. The beauty of a robust RCM software is it enables you to manage all financial aspects of account management. Lytec is a leading revenue cycle management software companies with support in the United States. Relative to improving your revenue management Lytec’s medical billing software empowers your staff to:
- View and manage patient personal and financial data
- Scheduling management
- Easily assign proper ICD-10 billing codes
- Transport claims to credentialed payors
- Track and assign payments to patient accounts
- Query and run reports
RCM Improves the Patient Experience
RCM also provides benefits to patients. Through better management of claims processing the amount of denied payments is reduced, thereby lowering a patient’s out-of-pocket expenses.
Ways to Improve Your Revenue Cycle
- Develop a patient registration process that confirms eligibility and coverage. Taking time up-front to make certain that you have complete and accurate information is a critical success factor.
- Leverage pre-admission contacts as appointment reminders and to confirm coverage information. This can reduce the occurrence of missed appointments, and discovering post service that the patient cannot pay in a timely manner.
- Develop a claims quality checklist that includes reminders on the unique requirements of each provider. This minimizes the odds of claims denials for reasons such as incomplete information, missing documentation, and patient ineligibility, etc.
- Be vigilant in maintaining a good understanding of major payors regarding what is or is not covered. The terms of provider contracts can have a profound impact on your business.
- Pursue creative ways to expedite the payment process. An often-overlooked opportunity is getting payors to remit electronically. This can shorten the payment cycle by weeks.
The Benefit – Get Paid Faster, Improve Your Bottom Line
Obviously, communicating with insurance companies is a critical part of the revenue management process. Being able to quickly submit a billing statement means getting paid as soon as possible. Your medical billing software allows you to quickly prepare and submit payment requests. The ability to view current receivables reports supports timely follow-up and collections efforts.
The best medical practice software includes appointment scheduling capabilities. Using the email functionality, you can send timely appointment reminders. Reducing the number of missed appointments contributes to improving daily revenue.
This same functionality can be used to email payment reminders. This is helpful in surviving problems with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)
HELPFUL TIP: For ongoing process RCM process improvements you should note reasons claims have been denied. There are often things that you can teach your billing personnel such as timely filing. This should include the unique requirements and preferences of individual insurance companies. This can prevent the re-occurrence of common billing errors, which improves your A/R aging trend.
In Summary
Utilizing revenue cycle management can provide an opportunity to improve the patient experience, patient care, and your operating efficiency. Lytec’s revenue cycle management software provides the tools needed to implement and manage a successful RCM process. We invite you to give us a call to learn more about revenue cycle management.
Lytec 2019 Upgrade – New Features and More Benefits
Lytec 2019 – The Best Medical Practice Software
Lytec© 2019 is a proven, trusted, and affordable practice management solution. The software is designed to simplify the way you run your medical practice. With each new release, Lytec medical practice management software gets better and more powerful. Every upgrade improves the user experience with functionalities that medical professionals have demanded.
Get Lytec 2019 UPGRADE DISCOUNTS
If you buy Lytec 2019 by November 2, 2018!
Call MediPro at 1-800-759-1321 and select Option 2 for details.
Meet Lytec 2019 – The Best Medical Practice Software
Explore the Benefits of Upgrading to Lytec 2019 Medical Practice Software
Move Credits Workflow – New in Lytec 2019
Faster and Easier Correction of Payment Posting Errors
Lytec 2019 makes it very easy to fix patient payment posting errors. The new Move Credit workflow eliminates the manual, time-consuming double entries.
You can now quickly choose the correct patient, find the billing entry with an incorrect credit, move and apply it to correct billings, and click to post.
This feature makes correcting posting errors quick and easy!
Watch the video to learn about the new Move Credits Workflow feature
Patient Email Connect – New in Lytec 2019
Better Marketing Communications Via the New Patient Engagement Tool
Patient engagement and marketing help to inform and retain patients. Lytec now makes it even easier to keep in touch with your patients. Use email and other methods to communicate important information and news. Lytec 2019 offers Patient Email Connect for email blasts to keep in touch with your patients.
Leverage email marketing to help your practice. Imagine what you can do with timely emails to send:
- Monthly PR newsletters
- Healthcare treatment news
- Birthday or holiday greetings
- Payment due reminders
- Patient satisfaction surveys
- Requests for Google or Bing reviews
The Patient Email Connect tool can generate personalized letters and create contact lists for phone campaigns.
Watch the video to learn about the new Patient Email Connect feature
Accounts Receivables Tracker – New in Lytec 2019
Reduce Lost Revenue from Missed Billing Deadlines
Timely filing denials are frustrating and can hurt your bottom-line. Because each payer has their own unique filing deadline schedule it’s easy to miss a deadline. The new filing calculator in Lytec 2019 Accounts Receivable Tracker keeps your billing moving on-time. Now you can calculate the time remaining to file a claim while you work your insurance receivables. Medical statement billers can now quickly view how many days remain before timely filing expires. They can also see which claims have already been billed or are past due. This enables your team to prioritize claim submissions and promptly work rejections. The Accounts Receivable Tracker feature is customizable to each payer’s filing requirements to mitigate problems resulting from missing billing deadlines.
Improve Collections with Real-Time Views of Patient Balances
Every medical practice needs a fast way to view or print a receivables report. Patients are increasingly responsible for a larger share of the cost of treatment. Following up to collect a patient’s out-of-pocket costs for medical care is more critical than ever. Updates to Lytec’s AR Tracker’s unpaid billing transactions grid show the patient’s copay responsibility at a glance. This makes it easier to view the current account balance and outstanding debt. Billers can now quickly determine if the unpaid balance is a patient’s co-pay or co-insurance remaining after insurance adjudication.
Faster Patient Account Management with the AR Tracker Refresh Button
Tired of starting over when making changes to a patient’s account? Now you don’t have to. The new refresh button in AR Tracker allows you to refresh your screen and see changes immediately, avoiding the hassle of re-running your AR query.
Better Records Management to Mitigate Duplicate Patient Record Problems
Duplicate patient records are a hassle that can be solved with new features in Lytec 2019. Lytec 2019 goes beyond simply finding social security numbers. It now compares a patient’s last name and date of birth to help your team find and resolve duplicate records.
Improve Efficiency by Viewing All Hold Codes at Once in the Scheduler
Lytec 2019 eliminates manual lookups of your pop-up notes for patients. Now you can see all hold-notes by hovering over the Hold Code column in the appointment scheduler. This saves time and reduces the number of clicks required to view patient notes.
Greater Flexibility Posting Patient Payments
In Lytec 2019, you will enjoy having greater flexibility when posting patient payments. Lytec 2019 allows posting of cash payments and an ability to open previously locked fields. You can also incorporate payment plans and credit card on file capabilities. With the BillFlash OfficePay integration you will find it easier than ever to manage patient payments.
Customizable Appointment Schedules – New in Lytec 2019
Improve Staff Productivity with Customized Appointment Schedules
In Lytec’s 2019 medical practice software you can create customized printed appointment schedules. Even better is a feature that enables any staff member to customize their schedule view. This software functionality gives staff members the ability to create a schedule format that works for them.
Compare Lytec 2019 to Previous Versions
New Features – Lytec 2019 Upgraded Medical Practice Software
EHR Medical Software Programs
CureMD Electronic Healthcare Records Software
This article provides an overview of the CureMD All-in-One EMR software solution for medical practice management. We will introduce the practice management software features that make CureMD among best medical software for clinicians.
Why Use EHR Systems
Medical software programs empower you to improve the efficiency of managing electronic health records. The CureMD All-in-One EHR solution maximizes the experience with cloud-based technology. With a cloud-based EHR, multiple doctors and staff can securely access and manage information from desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. With fast access for multiple users, your practice can improve both the patient experience and your bottom line.
CureMD – the popular EHR software
CureMD EHR software is extremely popular and highly regarded because it delivers everything a practice might require to manage electronic health records. With a sleek knowledgebase filled with your data managing information is as simple as point-and-click. The CureMD EHR software allows you to easily manage patient information, communication with patients, labs, payers, pharmacies and more.
Why is CureMD Software So Highly Respected?
Compliance with HIPAA and Health IT regulations is perfect. CureMD EHR is ONC 2015 Edition certified. It is also MIPS, Meaningful Use Stage 2 and Stage 3 ready.
Affordability is one of the top reasons CureMD is so popular with smaller medical practices. The monthly subscription pricing means you don’t have to spend huge sums to buy the software. Updates, including ICD-10-CM codes, are included at no extra cost.
Performance and practice specific customization heighten the value when compared to one-size-fits-all EMR software. The user-friendly customization functionality allows you to adjust your user experience to serve the unique needs of your practice. CureMD users can download a user-friendly App for Apple devices which provides full management of appointments, patient records, and other data.
What Are Advantages of Using CureMD Software?
Electronic Prescribing Functionality
Electronic submission and management of prescriptions are made easy via our E-Prescribing functionality. This feature connects your practice to more than 40,000 pharmacies in the United States. With a few clicks of a mouse or taps on your mobile device you can manage:
- An up-to-date drug knowledgebase
- Medication reconciliation
- Retrieve recent medication history from pharmacies
- Mail order and retail pharmacies
- Age & weight-based dose adjustment
- Process refill requests through patient portal and pharmacies
- Controlled substance e-prescribing (additional service)
- Real-time prescription eligibility and formulary
Advanced safety features ensure utmost quality and reliability by providing access to prescription benefits, prescription history, formulary, eligibility, adverse reactions (drug-drug; drug-allergy, drug-diagnosis) and recommended dosages.
Electronic Labs
CureMD offers lab interfacing technology to keep you connected to your preferred labs. You can easily send electronic orders and electronically receive results from most labs. With advanced reporting you will be able to provide safe, reliable patient care. The software features include the ability to manage:
- Trending and task assignment
- Comparing current and past results using both graphic and table formats
- Color specific alerts for abnormal results
Medical Practice Workflow Automation
Integrated workflow adapts to your unique preferences and practice style, enabling you to truly personalize your operations. The system mirrors your existing processes and revitalizes them with powerful automation and collaboration tools.
Your practice can realize tremendous improvements in efficiency via a Key Performance dashboard. Most elements of the software are customizable to facilitate learning, user adoption and efficient workflow output. From patient scheduling, account billing, and general EHR management you will be able to:
- Improve Productivity
- Accelerate Revenue Cycle
- Decrease Cost and Risk
- Optimize Collaboration
- Enhance Service Quality
- Ensure Compliance
- Engage Patients
Interoperability & Communication
CureMD enables the seamless exchange of information between all stakeholders. Interoperability provides connectivity with:
- Health information exchanges
- Pharmacies
- Payers
- Radiology / imaging services
- Hospital networks
- Referring providers
- Cancer registries
- Patients
- Syndromic surveillance agencies
- Immunization registries
- Specialty registries
- Electronic devices
- DICOM compliant imaging equipment
Mobile Access Via the Avalon EHR App
The Avalon iPhone app provides flawless mobile access and management capabilities. The Avalon app makes working remotely relatively easy and allows you to respond quickly to urgent situations. Physicians and authorized staff have 24/7/365 access to the information they need.
What You Can Do Through Avalon
- Schedule patients
- Review clinical notes
- Dictate using Siri
- ePrescribe
- Manage billing
- Verify insurance
Get in touch with us if your practice or clinic is interested in migrating to a top EHR software. We will be glad to answer questions, show you a personalized demo and provide pricing for CureMD EHR software. Reach out to us at to 1-800-759-1321 and learn more.
EMR Security, Privacy and HIPAA Compliance
Protecting Electronic Medical Records and Medical Practice Liabilities
EMR discussions usually focus on what are the best EMR systems and specific functionalities. Most medical practices shopping for one of the best medical software programs overlook two very important considerations – EMR security and HIPAA compliance. Read further to learn why they should be part of your decision-making process.
ITEM 1 – EMR / EHR Security and Privacy
EMR security and privacy confidentiality concerns are something most electronic medical records vendors shy away from discussing. For the owner or manager of the medical practice, EMR security and privacy protection need to be explored. Even a seemingly small disclosure could be grounds for a lawsuit or generate government fines for non-compliance. Let’s take a realistic look at how your choice of record keeping can impact your practice.
Paper Files are Safer Than EHR . . . Right?
Paper-based medical records can pose greater risks than EHR. How is this so? Paper records can be viewed by anyone in your office. This includes people at your front desk looking at an open file, your cleaning staff, visiting salespeople, and even burglars. Add to this the real risk that a tornado or other natural disaster could toss your records out into the streets.
Prior to the mid-1990’s most small medical practices had no choice except paper-based medical records. Private practice clinicians just accepted, never had or never considered the risks. The current legal and financial risks for records breaches are greater than ever. Now though, even small medical practices have affordable options for EMR management.
How EMR Protects Your Practice and Your Patients
How Safe is PC-based EMR Security?
Many practice managers think having PC-based software provides the best security. This is not necessarily true. It does make it relatively impossible for your system to be hacked, but what if your computers are stolen? A practice would be foolish to not have an active computer backup system. This means relying on someone to do time-consuming manual backups to an external hard drive. This is almost always inconsistent, and it presents the question of how do you safely store the backup? The other option is a cloud-based backup system. The choices here go from lousy to good but can be expensive. There is yet another way to go in this situation – cloud-based medical records software.
How Safe is Cloud-based EMR Security?
If you choose a quality EHR vendor a cloud-based system can be a near perfect solution. A cloud-based system offers 24/7/365 access for multiple users from desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices. CureMD software is hosted in a secure managed IT system using Best in KLAS EMR security features. If you have any concerns you can call for immediate help, and not wait for your IT guy to “come sometime tomorrow”.
What About Legal and Ethical Issues?
With cloud-based systems (i.e., CureMD, etc.) your medical practice is supported by EMR security specialists. These specialists protect your practice from security legal issues with medical records. There is also a need to clearly avoid security-related ethical issues with electronic health records. It is recognized that third parties may interact with patient records. It is legally recognized that non-clinicians may be exposed to data in the course of doing their job. This does not present an ethics issue. The appropriate assignment of different levels of access to systems administrators resolves any questions on how privacy confidentiality is balanced with electronic health record security.
Electronic Health Records Security and Privacy Concerns
Are there security threats to electronic health records security? Yes, but there are threats to every type of record keeping system, be it paper-based or EMR. What controls and minimizes EMR security risks with a cloud-based system are the types and layers of protection.
Explore EHR Security Measures
Active Risk Identification. Proactive measures make the difference in EMR security. Preventing data breaches is the key to personal data privacy and HIPAA compliance. CureMD leverages 24/7 automated vulnerability assessments and analysis. This includes network scanning, workstation scanning and port scanning. A highly skilled IT staff manages security and responds immediately to any perceived issues. Among the many EMR security measures CureMD employs are:
- Server Maintenance
- Critical Updates, Patches and Hotfixes
- Information Classification
- Access Control Measures
- Preventive, Detective, Deterrent and Corrective Measures
- Media Disposal Policies and Procedures
- Object Reuse Policies and Procedures
- Unique User Identification Procedure
- Workstation Security
- Devices and Peripherals Security
- Local and Group Policy Deployment
- Data Backups, Recovery and Encryption
- Mainframe Security
ITEM 2 – HIPAA Compliance and EHR Implementation
Fear of change and implementation hassles plague many medical practices. For these reasons, some continue to rely on outdated paper-based records. Some medical practices rely on low-budget records management software. Both of these groups are learning that staying current on HIPAA change implementation is a real problem. The need for a secure, cost-effective and HIPAA compliant solution makes cloud-based systems very attractive. With a customer-focused vendor, there is no need to fear EHR implementation.
A primary benefit of converting from paper-based records is resolving numerous potential HIPAA problems – present and future. Electronic medical records and HIPAA compliance go hand-in-hand because the software understands what is required. Moving forward, clinicians can expect ongoing modifications and additions to HIPAA compliance requirements. When the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) revises a HIPAA privacy rule or regulation your EMR software will be updated to ensure compliance and avoid HIPAA violations.
Cloud-Based EHR and HIPAA Compliance
There are no HIPAA problems using a legitimate cloud service provider (CSP), however; there are regulations that must be respected. When a medical practice hires a CSP to manage or transmit electronic protected health information (ePHI), the CSP is viewed as a business associate of the practice. This effectively authorizes the CSP to interact with data. The HHS has specific guidelines on HIPAA and cloud computing.