Are You Ready to Comply with the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule?

Today marks the deadline for compliance with the HIPAA Omnibus Rule. Violations can cost companies up to $1.5 million per year in fines and can ruin your organization’s reputation.

So, even with the threat of increased penalties, why does it feel like healthcare data breaches have become even more common? It’s because healthcare organizations haven’t put the proper policies and procedures in place to protect the confidentiality and integrity of their patient’s protected health information (PHI).

Encrypting data at the filesystem is one of the easiest ways to protect a patient's health information. Services like Sharetru offer this option on all of their plans.

Meeting the Sept. 23rd deadline to comply with the new HIPAA regulations is required, but it is also important that covered entities and business associates remember that complying with these new regulations is not a one-time event. It should be part of an enterprise-wide risk management plan.

As the healthcare industry’s use of and dependency on technology increases, so do the risks that could adversely affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic information. Understanding and managing these risks should be an embedded process as part of an overall information technology governance strategy. Meeting the HIPAA deadline is a critical first step.