Compliancy Group’s HIPAA Compliance Solution

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a complex regulation that can be difficult to navigate. As such, Compliancy Group’s HIPAA compliance solution was developed to simplify HIPAA compliance enabling healthcare organizations to confidently focus on their business. Compliancy Group’s proprietary cloud-based HIPAA compliance solution, The Guard, has all that an organization needs to prove their “good faith effort” built in to one easy to use solution. 

The Guard HIPAA Compliance Solution 

HIPAA compliance is multifaceted without clear requirements for HIPAA compliance. The law states that organizations must implement reasonably appropriate safeguards to secure protected health information (PHI), however it fails to give healthcare organizations specifics on what they must implement to be HIPAA compliant. Compliancy Group’s team of experts has reviewed the full regulation to ensure that their HIPAA compliance solution covers the law in its entirety. This is why Compliancy Group’s clients have never failed a HIPAA audit. 

What the Guard offers:

  • Annual audits: covered entities (CEs) are required to complete six self-audits annually, business associates (BAs) must complete five. Self-audits allow gaps in administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to be identified. The audits must be completed annually to ensure that any changes in business practices are accounted for.

Required self-audits include:

  • Privacy Assessment (not required for business associates)
  • Physical Site Audit
  • Asset & Device Audit
  • HITECH Subtitle D Audit
  • Security Risk Assessment 
  • Security Standards Audits
  • Remediation plans: are created based on the gaps identified by the self-audits. Remediation plans are a necessary part of HIPAA compliance as they prove that an organization is aware of where their safeguards are lacking, and is working to close the gaps.
  • Policies and procedures: organizations must have policies and procedures that are customized. Compliancy Group’s total HIPAA compliance solution allows organizations to create policies and procedures that directly relate to their business practices. Policies and procedures are required to be reviewed and updated periodically to ensure that they cover any changes that may have occurred. 
  • Employee training, tracking, and attestation: once policies and procedures are created, employees must be trained on how to handle protected health information. The Guard stores all of the training material necessary and provides means to track employee progress. In addition, employees are able to legally attest that they have read and understood all of the training material.
  • Business associate management: business associates are held to the same HIPAA compliance standards as covered entities. As such, healthcare organizations are required to vet their vendors before they are permitted to share PHI. The Guard allows clients to send out questionnaires to all of their business associates to assess their HIPAA compliance. BAs are sent the five required self-audits that identify any gaps they may have. CEs should require their BAs to address those gaps with remediation plans before they work with them.

HIPAA Compliance Solution

HIPAA also requires signed business associate agreements (BAAs) before PHI may be shared. A BAA is a legal document that mandates that both parties are HIPAA compliant and they are each responsible for their own compliance. It also dictates who is responsible for reporting a breach should one occur. In the event of a breach, a signed BAA limits the liability for both parties, as only the party responsible for the breach will be held accountable. However, if an organization fails to properly vet their vendor or secure a signed BAA, both parties will be liable for a breach. 

  • Incident management: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requires that employees have means to report a breach anonymously. With Compliancy Group’s total HIPAA compliance solution, employees are able to report breaches without fear of repercussion. In addition, an organization is not HIPAA compliant unless they can prove their “good faith effort.” The Guard’s audit response feature provides all of the necessary documentation required by HIPAA law.  

The most difficult part of HIPAA compliance is figuring out exactly what to implement. Compliancy Group’s software guides clients through the entire HIPAA compliance implementation process. Upon completion of the implementation process, clients receive the Seal of Compliance to display on their website, email signature line, and a sticker for their office window. The Seal of Compliance is a great differentiator as it verifies and validates an organization’s “good faith effort” towards HIPAA compliance. 

Need Assistance with HIPAA Compliance?

Compliancy Group can help! Our cloud-based compliance software, the Guard™, gives you the flexibility to work on your HIPAA compliance from anywhere that has an internet connection. Our software will guide you through our implementation process enabling you to Achieve, Illustrate, and Maintain™ HIPAA compliance.