HIPAA Compliance Consulting , Audit & Certification Services
Ensure secure healthcare data transfer, build patient trust, and stay compliant with HIPAA.
Wattlecorp’s expert HIPAA consultancy services help you steer clear of compliance violations and deliver exceptional care and service to patients.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a US law that is aimed at providing data privacy and security measures to protect medical information. Established in 1996, it was created to ensure that sensitive health information of patients is not disclosed without their explicit knowledge or consent.
It was issued by the HHS, the US Department of Health and Human Services and required standards to be created on a national level for protection of patient health information. HIPAA specifically aims at protecting a part of the information covered by the Privacy Rule. The standards of this rule deals with the usage and disclosure of health information of patients by entities to whom the Privacy Rule applies.
The individual health info is called PHI or protected health information and the entities , ‘covered entities’. The HIPAA has two main goals: providing continuous health insurance cover for employees who lose or change their jobs, and reducing healthcare cost through the standardization of e-transmission of transactions whether financial or administrative. It also aims to deal with waste, fraud, and abuse in both the delivery of healthcare and health insurance, along with providing better access to health insurance and long-term healthcare. In short, HIPAA aims at ensuring protection of patient health information without impeding the flow of health information required to deliver and promote outstanding healthcare.
To Whom is the HIPAA Applicable?
This law is applicable to all those who collect and transmit health information or medical records of patients. This includes healthcare providers, health plans, business associates, healthcare startups, insurers, TPAs, clearing houses and so on. Basically, any entity that has access to medical information of patients have to comply with the HIPAA. If you belong to the healthcare or related businesses, you must prioritize safety of patient health information and ensure compliance with federal regulations. These are the entities to whom the HIPAA applies:
- Hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, physicians, and diagnostic services
- Rehabilitation facilities and medical labs
- EMR, EHR, and telemedicine software vendors.
- Medical diagnosis software companies and digital therapeutics vendors
- VR and AR healthcare solution services
- Internet of Medical Things companies
- Medicare, Medicaid, Care insurers and other health plans
- CPA firms, TPAs, clearing houses, payers, and other business associates
- Online pharmacies, healthcare tech startups dealing in telemedicine
- Medical device manufacturers
Our HIPAA Compliance Consultancy Services
Comprehensive HIPAA Compliance Consultancy services that help you ensure compliance and protect patient data.
Identifying Assets and Services
The first step is to determine what assets are being used in PHI operations, and which employees and other individuals have access to this information.
HIPAA GAP Assessment
Next, our HIPAA experts at Wattlecorp conduct a Gap Assessment to check the status of your current measures for protecting patient information.
Cyber Risk Assessment
We determine the level of exposure and risk to patient information by comparing your current security strategies with the requirements specified by HIPAA, document the vulnerabilities, potential threats, and possible impact. We also review the software source code and architecture to ensure there are no problems there.
Penetration Testing
Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing is conducted to expose the vulnerabilities in your system, detect their nature and prioritize these vulnerabilities based on their risk level.
Risk Treatment Plan
The next step is to draw a roadmap; to create a risk management or treatment plan to make sure the gaps are closed, and the risks are mitigated and brought down to non-threatening, manageable levels.
Implementing Policies & Procedures
Drafting robust security policies is our next step; these strategies help you achieve HIPAA compliance, transfer patient data securely, and protect patient information. We ensure that you implement best practices to protect patient information in the shortest possible time.
Technology Implementation
Our team guides entities in implementing the security controls and rectifying the gaps in security. We conduct timely reviews of the progress of the implementation process.
Disaster Recovery Plan Development
The Wattlecorp team helps you to reconstitute everything, assess damages to the system, and strengthen your response to breaches by setting a robust disaster recovery plan in place
HIPAA Compliance for Long Term Care
Many patients require long-term care in special facilities due to their physical condition or chronic diseases. There are five main rules to be followed. In addition to the privacy and security rule already mentioned above, they must adhere to the:
Transactions Rule – states that when information is exchanged between two parties for financial or administrative tasks in an electronic form, the transaction must be in standalone formats like NCPDP or ASC X12N as per HIPAA stipulations.
Identifiers Rule – patients are identified by healthcare providers with the help of certain types of data like names, medical record numbers or social security numbers. These elements cannot be shared without the patient’s explicit permission, unless d for research. In that case, the Institutional Review Board has to approve it first.
Enforcement Rule – specifies that covered entities follow HIPAA laws, and it also covers disciplinary hearings. Entities that violate HIPAA regulations are investigated under this rule, and if found guilty, are penalized as well.
Benefits of Maintaining HIPAA Compliance
Any individual or organization working in the healthcare field must adhere to HIPAA regulations. By not doing so, you leave yourself and your organization vulnerable to potential security breaches and greater security risks. Not to mention that you will be penalized and sued, authorities will monitor you continuously, and your reputation will be damaged.
By complying with HIPAA, you can enjoy improved data security and have an audit ready patient data environment. You can avoid data leaks and the following negative consequences that can occur by being proactive in managing risk and ensuring security of patient information.
You will not have to worry about legal actions or penalties when you comply with HIPAA. When patients realize that you are doing everything in your power to protect their confidentiality and keep their information safe, they are more likely to trust you, appreciate you, and advocate for you. moreover, when you adhere to important regulations and security standards, you will earn a name for being reliable and risk-free, which will attract other organizations who will be ready to partner with you.
Why Choose Wattlecorp For HIPAA Compliance Assessment ?
- Certified HIPAA experts in the UAE
- Ensuring you don’t commit HIPAA violations
- Short turnaround time with excellent service
- Ensuring HIPAA compliance through scrupulous assessment and strategy formulation
- Continuous monitoring and reviews at frequent intervals to ensure compliance
- Implementing robust security measures to prevent data breaches
- Providing comprehensive visibility into the biggest risks and exposure your organization is vulnerable to
- List ItemSwift remediation of vulnerabilities and security gaps
- Guaranteeing confidentiality and secure access to PHI
- Helping maintain cyber resilience
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The HIPAA Privacy Rule is a key regulation under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that protects the privacy of individuals’ health information. It ensures that healthcare providers, insurers, and related entities safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI) while allowing secure data sharing for treatment and operations.
The HIPAA also introduced the HIPAA Security Rule to supplement the Privacy Rule. The Security Rule defines the controls and protections that must be implemented by the covered entities to make sure that electronic protected health information stays confidential and available. The Security Rule also imposes stringent penalties for entities that don’t comply with it.
Depending on how severe the violation is, entities can be charged anything from $100 to $50,000 for every violation or non-compliance with HIPAA.
The HIPAA standards are upheld by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Neither they nor the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) offer certification programs or support for compliance with HIPAA. Covered entities are expected to assess themselves and take the necessary steps to be compliant with HIPAA. For this purpose, they can engage the services of expert consultants like Wattlecorp.
This depends to a great extent on the initial gap assessment we conduct and the budget available to rectify those gaps. However, the norm is two to six months to achieve compliance with HIPAA.
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