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The healthcare industry houses a range of important providers that improve and care for the well-being of many. On top of providing beneficial health services, they also ensure the health and safety of their patients in numerous other ways. No matter the type of healthcare service your clinic provides, from medical to dental care, all businesses within the healthcare industry prioritize their patients. Aside from you and your fellow employees, patients drive your business' success and purpose.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is one of the many factors that increase and ensure the safety of your clients. It covers a range of laws and regulations pertaining to a patient's private protected health information (PHI). HIPAA protocols set standards for protecting, handling, and obtaining one's PHI, establishing safety measures and patients' rights. In order for your clinic to comply and meet the mandatory requirements of HIPAA, all employees with access to PHI—for any healthcare service and all job types within the clinic—must undergo training. Here is why HIPAA training is essential for all healthcare workers.
Complies With Federal Requirements
Covered entities play a major role in HIPAA. HIPAA's Privacy Rule states that covered entities include health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers that handle and transmit PHI. Since the act specifically lists these entities, all that fall under any of the listed categories are legally obligated to comply with HIPAA. All who fail to comply and implement various HIPAA protocols faces repercussions.
Anyone who works for a healthcare provider also counts as an active member of that entity group, specifically if their job responsibility does encounter or involve handling patient information. Therefore, all healthcare workers must undergo HIPAA training to gain compliance, no matter their particular role or type of provided service.
Establishes Universal Patient Rights
One of the major benefits of HIPAA is its establishment of patient rights. HIPAA gives patients autonomy over their PHI and who gets permission to access it besides themselves and the covered entities. It also allows them to request data changes (within reason) and ensure all their information accurately notes their health records and any pertinent details.
Ensuring that all healthcare workers undergo training and learn about the rights of their patients creates a universal understanding of patient rights. Collective knowledge ensures that all patients get to access their rights and that all healthcare workers respect those rights, minimizing potential safety and security issues. Plus, it establishes a composite of conventions that all practices follow, creating an ethical and cohesive industry.
Ensures HIPAA Compliance
On top of covering ethics and rights, HIPAA also addresses action plans and implementation protocols. Training often teaches healthcare workers proper electronic security and protection practices, from recordkeeping safeguards to confidentiality solutions.
In line with universal understanding within the healthcare industry, mandating applicable healthcare workers to undergo HIPAA training also ensures a collective comprehension within an individual workplace. All those with access to PHI must become HIPAA compliance certified, according to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Training employees about HIPAA increases the chances of proper protocol implementation. It ensures everyone within the office is on the same page and playing their part to comply with HIPAA standards.
Adds Extra Safety Measures
Extra safety measures get put in place when all employees are on the same page and undergo the same training. Along with regular evaluations and compliance surveys, peer accountability also acts as an added safety net to ensure and enforce compliance. Your clinic's staff members are on the front lines of action. They are the ones who actively make the changes and implement the standard practices.
Training all healthcare workers ensures that everyone helps one another to comply. Coworkers can spot each other, keep an eye out for any breaches, help teach one another, and correct those that might be failing to enforce and implement HIPAA compliance. Plus, the collective understanding further creates safety measures as the chances of successful compliance increase with each person properly following protocols.
Builds Patients’ Trust
HIPAA compliance offers a range of benefits for both your business and your patients. One of the major benefits is improved patient and provider relationships. HIPAA protects patients and their PHI. As a client of your business, knowing that everyone is playing their part to ensure your safety, privacy, and rights builds trust.
When patients trust your clinic and all involved, they are more likely to continue and seek out your service. Training everyone shows a collective front and that everyone agrees to protect the patient, minimizing any distrust or doubts a client might possess coming into your clinic. The more people they trust, the stronger their loyalty.
Penalties Affect Everyone
A person's PHI includes a range of private personal information like one's account information, important dates, and identification data. When a person's PHI lands in the wrong hands, it causes serious safety issues, from fraud to stalking. Due to the high risks at stake, failure to comply with HIPAA leads to various repercussions. Some of the penalties enforced actively and passively include:
- Recorded citations
- Civil penalties
- Poor reputation
- Jail time
- Extra training sessions
Each violation varies in severity depending on the type of breach enacted. All willful violations lead to highly severe punishments.
Many of the repercussions that occur affect the business as a whole instead of just the individual who caused a breach, like poor reputation, citations, and added training. Enforcing all workers to undergo training minimizes violation risks and ensures the clinic doesn't deal with any negative repercussions.
Improved Employee Dynamics
Everyone banding together in the office to ensure HIPAA compliance builds a more cohesive workplace dynamic. Not only does training all your employees create collective understanding, but it also provides a chance for your employees to trust one another. Each staff member relies on the other to keep their part of the bargain up to stay HIPAA-compliant. All coworkers know what to look for when scouting breaches and trust that everyone on the team will say something if potential violations occur. Training all healthcare workers creates a single unit mindset with each staff member as an integral moving part to the main goal of securing patient security.
HIPAA training is essential for certain healthcare workers because the more people that understand patients' rights, the importance of HIPAA, methods of implementation, and repercussions, the less likely it is for security issues to occur. Like most established federal laws, HIPAA training is enforced for a reason and with the hopes of doing good for all. Ensuring all your employees undergo a HIPAA online training course keeps everyone in your office HIPAA-compliant and actively playing a part in protecting your patients.
