The medical industry is a pivotal factor in Houston’s rapid growth. Ensuring patient confidentiality is crucial to any business and there is no greater threat to that practice than human error. Thus, HIPAA Compliance was born. neoRhino‘s HIPAA team assists businesses under the HIPAA umbrella in meeting the necessary requirements to protect the sensitive data of their clients.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: a standard requirement for any company that handles Protected Health Information (PHI). The goal of the HIPAA law is to ensure patient health information is kept confidential.
You could be responsible for HIPAA Compliance and not even know it.
Nobody is perfect, and the sheer increase in patient interaction also increases the risk of a potential leak. HIPAA defines those who must show compliance through various levels of responsibility. According to HIPAA, ultimate responsibility rests on the Covered Entity (CE), or a business that provides treatment, payment, and operations involving healthcare.
Rarely does a company exist without relationships with fellow businesses, and these Business Associates (BA): share the responsibility of protecting PHI within the scope of their interaction of confidential information. These businesses have access to patient information and offer support in the forms of treatment, payment, or operations.
Additionally, any subcontractor who may handle PHI for these BA's must be HIPAA compliant as well.
In addition to HIPAA Compliance, in 2012 Texas passed the HB 300 bill, significantly widening the net of who must achieve compliance by law. After the bill's passing, many companies who HIPAA previously defined as Business Associates were redefined as Covered Entities. Organizations and individuals who must adhere to HIPAA compliance in Texas include:
- Hospitals
- Clinics
- Individual medical practitioners
- Dentists
- Laser hair removal facilities
- Lawyers who are not defined as a BA under HIPAA, but come into possession of PHI
- Healthcare clearinghouses
- Health plans
- Private sector vendors
- Third-party administrators
- Schools
- Website maintenance providers
- ANY for-profit or non-profit entity that collects, uses, stores, or transmits Protected Health Information (PHI)
If your business falls under HIPAA’s Security Rule, every member of your organization is responsible for maintaining compliance. No third-party or hosting provider can make an organization HIPAA compliant. neoRhino cannot guarantee for any organization that we will make them achieve compliance – that can only be achieved by cooperation of the entire organization’s staff. We provide the roadmap on how to get you there.
For more information, or if your business needs help meeting and maintaining HIPAA Compliance, give us a call today at (877) 85-RHINO or visit our HIPAA website at www.TexasHIPAA.com.
HIPAA’s & HB 300’s impact is critical to Houston’s economy... and yours. The first step to compliance is awareness. The next step is to give us a call.
