The HIPAA Security Risk Assessment
HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was introduced in 1996 to protect the privacy and security of individuals' health information. One of the key components of HIPAA is the Security Rule, which requires covered entities and their business associates to implement appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI).
A HIPAA security risk assessment is a crucial step in ensuring that covered entities and their business associates are complying with the Security Rule. It involves a comprehensive evaluation of an organization's security policies, procedures, and technical safeguards to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI.
In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of a HIPAA security risk assessment, what it entails, and how to conduct one effectively.
Why is a HIPAA Security Risk Assessment Important?
A HIPAA security risk assessment is critical for several reasons:
- Compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule
As previously mentioned, the HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities and business associates to implement appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect ePHI. A security risk assessment is a requirement under the Security Rule and is necessary to determine an organization's compliance status.
- Identification of potential risks and vulnerabilities
A HIPAA security risk assessment can help identify potential risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI. This is important as it allows you to take proactive steps to mitigate these risks before a security incident occurs. By conducting regular risk assessments, your organization can ensure that it remains up to date with new threats and vulnerabilities.
- Protection of patient information
Patient information is among the most sensitive data that an organization can hold. By conducting a security risk assessment, you can ensure that you are taking all necessary steps to protect this information. This not only protects the patients but also ensures that your organization avoids any potential legal or reputational issues.
What does a HIPAA Security Risk Assessment Entail?
A HIPAA security risk assessment involves the following steps:
- Identify PHI
The first step is to identify all electronic systems, applications, and data that contain PHI. This includes any device or software that is used to store, transmit, or access PHI. Also identify any places where physical copies of PHI are being stored.
- Identify Potential Risks and Vulnerabilities
Once PHI has been identified, the next step is to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities. This can include anything from physical theft of devices to malware infections. It is important to identify both internal and external risks.
- Assess Current Security Measures
Third you must assess the current security measures in place. This can include administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. Administrative safeguards are policies and procedures that govern how PHI is accessed, stored, and transmitted. Physical safeguards are measures taken to protect the physical location of PHI. Technical safeguards are the measures taken to protect ePHI electronically, such as firewalls and encryption.
- Determine the Likelihood and Impact of Potential Risks
Once potential risks and vulnerabilities have been identified and the current security measures assessed, the next step is to determine the likelihood and impact of each risk. This involves assigning a probability and impact score to each risk.
- Develop a Risk Management Plan
Finally, a risk management plan should be developed to mitigate the identified risks. This plan should prioritize risks based on their likelihood and impact and provide a roadmap for addressing them. The plan should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that it remains relevant.
How Can You Take the Stress out of Your Security Risk Assessment?
Medcurity has created a complete guided HIPAA Security Risk Assessment for healthcare providers and other covered entities.
Where organizations have used complicated spreadsheets in the past, or taken the additional risk to their finances and reputation of skipping the SRA entirely, Medcurity has brought clarity and confidence to compliance activities.
Why Use Medcurity?
- HIPAA Security Rule Simplification
The HIPAA Security Rule can be complex and difficult to navigate. This can make it challenging for healthcare providers to understand the specific requirements and obligations that apply to them. Medcurity experts are knowledgeable and experienced in helping providers meet requirements AND improve their organization's security through the SRA process.
- Time and Resources
Conducting a HIPAA security risk assessment can be a time-consuming and headache-producing process that requires significant time and resources. This can be a challenge for healthcare leaders who are already managing a variety of other tasks and responsibilities. With the easy-to-use Medcurity platform, you can conduct a more robust security risk assessment in less time, or you can engage our team to conduct the assessment for you. Our goal is to help you simplify HIPAA compliance so you can focus on providing the best patient care. Medcurity provides guidance, explanations, and definitions throughout the risk assessment process.
- Third-Party Validation
Having our third-party team conduct the HIPAA security risk assessment provides an additional level of validation that you are taking your compliance responsibilities seriously. This can help improve confidence among patients, business associates, and the OCR when you are able to demonstrate your commitment to protecting patient information.
- Continued Remediation
When your security risk assessment is completed and the risks to your PHI have been identified, the Medcurity platform automatically generates an updateable worklist of items to address to improve compliance. This helps you to get the most out of your assessment. Our team believes not only that conducting an SRA should be about meeting requirements, but that the information gathered should be easily digestible and should be used to continually improve security. That’s why as soon as your assessment is complete, Medcurity generates detailed, prioritized action items, which you can then assign to team members and track to completion from your Medcurity dashboard.
If you’d like to view a demo of the Medcurity platform or learn more about how our complete set of compliance tools can help you save time and improve security, contact our team today. Ditch the confusing and complicated tools and spreadsheets and experience a better approach to the HIPAA security risk assessment.