The very mention of the word ‘HIPAA’ leaves people apprehensive of the ingenious ways of the criminal-minded and their debilitating impact on the medical practice. The law was to merely protect the rights of patients with regards to their personal health information has taken on a more grave form due to regular occurrences of misdemeanor and intentional mishandling reports. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has imposed severe regulatory metrics for healthcare compliance and equally severe penalties for violation of the regulations.
The addition of HITECH further confirms the intensity of maintaining strict compliance measures with a penalty of $250,000, apart from the slur cast on the reputation of the healthcare organizations and instantaneous termination awarded to delinquent employees. There are times when employees of the healthcare organizations violate the HIPAA Compliance regulations either out of curiosity or out of a willingness to do a good deed.
A staff nurse was terminated when she accessed a deceased patient’s records to stop intimating the family members regarding a follow-up appointment through an automated system. Another incident of accidental violation occurred in the DePoo Chemical Dependency Facility in Florida where the program director allowed an unauthorized staff entry into a restricted area containing confidential information.
Some employees are also tempted to violate the healthcare compliance regulations with a curiosity to view personal health records of high-profile celebrities, and sometimes selling them for monetary gains. Even with the termination of employees there is no reduction in violation of the law.
All these incidents clearly emphasize the need for imparting proper training to the staff to clamp down these rampant malpractices. It becomes crucial to update the employees regarding silly mistakes that can cost heavy losses. The healthcare organizations should also implement technology that provide robust tracking, monitoring and remediation solutions along with educating the staff regarding the significance and repercussions of compliance violation.
Any act of violation can be thwarted and controlled with the help of automated compliance healthcare solutions delivered on the cloud. The solutions provide real-time information and keep a track of the activities constantly. Thus organizations can modify their existing regulations as per the revised ones and be safe from non-compliance insinuations. Since the services are delivered on the cloud there is no requirement for any new infrastructure which eases the worry of spiraling costs.
The HITECH regulations have issued mandatory clauses for business associates which all healthcare providers must adhere to. The web-based solutions provides another benefit – that of tracking and monitoring the activities of the business associates..
Healthcare organizations that wish to survive in such precarious conditions have to initiate strategies to ensure high levels of awareness regarding the ongoing compliance requirements and the alacrity to adapt to the changing demands. It is only with the automated IT healthcare compliance solutions that the healthcare organizations can think of avoiding any mistakes and surviving scathing effects.
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