HIPAA Timeline

To start this training, come back briefly on HIPAA timeline since its first act until today!

Why HIPAA Compliance is Important

This module will explain why healthcare professionals should pay attention to HIPAA regulations and the importance of HIPAA both personally and professionally for medical students. Learning about HIPAA is learning to protect your future healthcare career.

HIPAA Overview

Let's continue with a general review of what is HIPAA, its purpose and where it applies.

HIPAA Definitions & Lexicon

We’ll now make a brief tour of basic HIPAA definitions to familiarize with lexicon.

The HITECH Act

Now that we have explained the electronic protected health information definition, let’s focus on the HITECH Act – or Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

Main HIPAA Regulatory Rules

The HIPAA regulations are divided into several major standards or rules. Let's present briefly the main regulatory rules to consider.

HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule

Final omnibus rule is the last HIPAA major legislative update. It came to complete the regulation changes included in HITECH Act.

HIPAA Privacy Rule Basics

The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information. It applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and all health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.

HIPAA Security Rule

The HIPAA Security Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals’ electronic personal health information that is created, received, used, or maintained by a covered entity. The Security Rule requires appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and security of electronic protected health information.

HIPAA Patient Rights

It’s important to notice that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act also reinforce patient rights and their control over personal informations. So what are patient rights under HIPAA?

PHI Disclosure Guidelines

Communicating Protected Health Informations is an everyday occurrence among healthcare professionals. Generally, PHI may be used and disclosed only with the express authorization of the patient. However, HIPAA rules provide some exceptions.

Threats to Patient Data

One other major aspect of HIPAA regulation is to provide rules facing threats to patient data. Personal data and Electronic Health Records (EHR) contain a host of sensitive information. In general, we define four types of data threat sources: • Adversarial • Accidental • Structural • Environmental

Computer Safety Rules

To prevent effectively against data threats and comply to HIPAA, there are significant rules for computer safety that covered entities should follow. Let’s review the fundamentals of safe computing!

HIPAA Violation Consequences

A HIPAA violation is a failure to comply with any aspect of HIPAA standards and provisions. Failure to comply with HIPAA regulation can expose the covered entities to severe consequences. But what are the penalties for a Hipaa violation?

Preventing HIPAA Violations

HIPAA affects nearly every aspect of the business of healthcare. It requires that all healthcare employees do their utmost to protect patient health information. Most violations can be easily prevented by implementing HIPAA regulations into the practice's policies and procedures, and ensuring that all individuals with access to patient information receive the proper training.

HIPAA and Emergency Situations

In an emergency situation, covered entities must continue to implement reasonable safeguards to protect patient information. However, their employees are permitted to waive certain HIPAA requirements. Let's focus now on how HIPAA rules apply in emergency situations!

HIPAA Officer

Let’s now focus on the role of the “HIPAA Officer”, an employee specially dedicated to HIPAA compliance in covered entities. All covered entities are required to appoint a HIPAA Officer who is responsible for ensuring that policies and procedures are in place.

HIPAA Compliance for Students

Being a HIPAA compliant student does not mean to read and memorize every page of HIPAA legislation. It is the responsibility of the covered entitie to ensure all its practices and policies are in compliance with HIPAA. Nevertheless, students should comply with their organization’s policies and are required to be trained by the organization to comply with HIPAA rules.

EHR Access by Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals are permitted to access patients’ EHRs during training, but only under supervision, and only for the purpose of practicing and improving their skills as healthcare providers.

HIPAA and Social Media

HIPAA sets legal boundaries on how protected health information can be used and disclosed on social media. The boundaries apply to pratically every piece of information about patients that can possibly identify them.

Recent HIPAA Updates

Although there have not been any major updates to HIPAA regulations since the Omnibus final rule of 2013, there has been interpretative and legislative activity elsewhere that indirectly impact HIPAA and how it's applied.

HIPAA Compliance Checklist

HIPAA is a complex piece of legislation and compliance can be difficult, costly, and time-consuming to achieve. However, by breaking HIPAA down into its component parts and considering them in turn, full compliance can be easily achieved.

Cybersecurity Dangers in Healthcare

Cybersecurity is the practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and electronic protected health information from internal and external threats, and reducing those threats to a low and acceptable level.

Protect PHI from Cyberthreats

In this module we will provide you with best practices and tips to help you become a cyber-conscious employee and avoid online activities that could harm your organization, patients - or yourself.

HIPAA Training Summary

Certificate of Completion

Get a HIPAA Training Certificate awarded to your name after completing all quizes.