Since the beginning of the pandemic workplace culture and trends have been evolving. According to Upwork’s “Future Workforce Pulse Report”, it’s estimated that 36.2 million Americans will work remotely by 2025. For perspective, that’s an 87% percent increase from pre-pandemic levels.
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The location of where you work might change but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services standards continue to stay the same. Understanding the risks of working with protected health information (PHI) and practicing compliance is still crucial, even while working from home.
So let’s quickly revisit what HIPAA even is. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a federal law that exists to secure protected health information (PHI). This law keeps patient information private to that patient and the organizations that handle their PHI.
Failure to follow these standards can result in a violation. And a violation can then lead to fines or even jail time.
According to HIPAA Journal, unauthorized disclosure of PHI is one of the most common HIPAA violations. So what risks should you look out for as a remote employee that is required to be HIPAA compliant? Let’s take a look. Some healthcare facilities still use paper-based procedures. Physical documents with sensitive information can hold the risk of an unauthorized person in the home seeing them.
To help avoid a breach, make sure to take appropriate measures to secure documents containing PHI, such as having a designated folder or cabinet to store them in.
Failing to properly dispose of these physical files can also pose a risk. Healthcare organizations have HIPAA-compliant procedures for destroying documents containing PHI.
Companies that outsource file disposal to secure vendors may struggle with finding methods to destroy sensitive documents remotely. This poses a risk for these documents to end up in an employee’s unsecured trash bin.
An easy method for properly disposing of sensitive documents at home is to put them through a shredder. This also happens to be one of the more common ways.
Being able to connect securely to company servers to access sensitive files is necessary when it comes to compliance. IT departments are updating company systems as more employees are starting to work remotely.
But these networks can become congested or slowed depending on the internet provider of the remote employee. Some employees may seek shortcuts to access PHI through channels that lack the security necessary. Or, they may simply forget to log in to the secure network while at home.
Make sure to always use a secure network when working with PHI or if your company doesn’t offer one, invest in a virtual private network (VPN). These networks are encrypted so employees can share patient information securely from anywhere.
We know that healthcare employees need to renew their HIPAA certifications annually… and if you didn’t, now you do. Poor training leaves organizations vulnerable to HIPAA violations.
These training requirements are no different for remote employees.
Compliance training should be a top priority for all organizations to ensure avoiding information breaches.
If you’re already providing HIPAA training to your employees, it’s essential that you cover remote work scenarios as well.
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Негізгі бет The HIPAA Compliance Guide for Remote Workers
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