The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law in the healthcare industry that protects sensitive patient information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent. HIPAA compliance is important for patient safety as well as for healthcare workers to avoid possible lawsuits. 

Who Becomes a HIPAA Privacy Officer?

A HIPAA Privacy Officer can be an existing employee or even a new hire, but no matter who they are, they must be knowledgeable on the ins and outs of the law and how it affects the organization. Building on the understanding and being able to implement it into the real situations to evaluate and avoid possible threats is essential.  

What Does a HIPAA Privacy Officer do?

Depending on the size of the organization and how much protected health information (PHI) it handles, the job of a Privacy Officer varies. Larger organizations may need to expand and have multiple Privacy Officers to keep up. Keeping private health information safe is a complex job that only gets more complex with time. As technology and healthcare advance, there will be new rules put in place to safeguard information stored online. As PHI is stored online, it is also important to perform security audits of all technology being used to handle the information. As time goes on, there are always new changes and updates to HIPAA rules and guidelines making it difficult to follow. When possible threats to PHI are found, it is the Privacy Officers job to implement guidelines, standards and policies to avoid the threats. Another role that a Privacy Officer takes on is educating employees on how to stay within HIPAA’s established guidelines. If employees are unaware of how careful they need to be, it can lead to an internal breach of PHI. 

Does Every Organization Need A HIPAA Privacy Officer?

Every organization that is handling protected health information is at risk for a HIPAA violation, which can ultimately end up in a lawsuit, fines, and a tarnished reputation. Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, it is required that every company has an assigned Privacy Officer that is in charge of implementing and ensuring HIPAA policies within the company. 

Handling PHI correctly is an important role of every healthcare practice, and is an aspect of business that can not be neglected. 

For more information on how to stay within guidelines:

https://healthitsecurity.com/news/six-ways-stay-hipaa-compliant-keep-phi-safe