Get Your HIPAA Risk Assessment Template
A HIPAA Risk Assessment is an essential component of HIPAA compliance. HIPAA Risk and Security Assessments give you a strong baseline that you can use to patch up holes in your security infrastructure. However, when it comes to HIPAA federal requirements, HIPAA risk assessments are only a part of address the full extent of the law.
Creating a HIPAA Risk Assessment Template for Your Business
Let’s break down what exactly a HIPAA risk assessment is so you can use your risk assessment template effectively.
The HIPAA Security Rule mandates that all HIPAA-beholden entities (including health care providers and vendors who do business with health care clients) must complete a thorough Risk Assessment within their business. HIPAA regulation is primarily focused on safeguarding the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI). PHI is defined as any demographic information that can be used to identify a patient. Click here for common examples of PHI and how to keep it all safe.
HIPAA Risk Assessments must be performed year after year to account for changes in the scope or scale of your business. HIPAA Risk Assessments are also an essential component of MIPS/MACRA, which will only becoming more important in the years ahead.
By performing a HIPAA Risk Assessments, you’re auditing across your business’s administrative, physical, and technical compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule. Here are some brief explanations of each component of a HIPAA Risk Assessment:
- Administrative: The administrative assessment takes a look at the processes that your business has in place to ensure the security of PHI. Think about:
- What kind of security policies does your business have in place?
- Are your employees trained on HIPAA security requirements?
- Physical: The physical assessment is an audit of your business’ physical premises to ensure that proper security safeguards are in place. Think about:
- Are your health records kept in locked cabinets?
- Do you have an alarm system for the physical premises?
- Technical: And the technical assessment audits the safeguards your business has in place in order to keep the electronic transmission, storage, access, or engagement with PHI is kept secure. Think:
- What kind of firewall do you have in place?
- Antivirus?
- Encryption?
Now that you have a better understanding of HIPAA security requirements, let’s take a look at options you have for your HIPAA Risk Assessment Template.
HIPAA Risk Assessment Templates
The simplest way to handle your HIPAA Risk Assessment is with an automated solution. Click here to schedule a free HIPAA consultation to find out the options you have and how you can address your HIPAA Risk Assessment.
Alternatively, these two free resources from HHS and NIST that will give you the functionality to perform your own risk assessment with their pre-built, un-customized HIPAA Risk Assessment templates:
