Many private services and companies that deal with the transit, storage, or distribution of protected health information (PHI) are beholden to HIPAA regulations as business associates (BAs). Though the scope of your business might not touch upon direct medical care, any organization that is paid to come into contact with PHI must comply with federal regulations regarding the privacy and security of that information while it passes through their hands.
When HITECH was passed in 2009, the original requirements for business associates (BAs) under HIPAA changed drastically. The Privacy and Security Rules were expanded to incorporate new requirements regarding the use, creation, maintenance, and distribution of protected health information (PHI). So while BAs have always needed to comply with any business associate agreements (BAAs) that they signed, HITECH legally requires that BAs themselves must be compliant under HIPAA regulation as well.
No matter the size of your organization, finding a total compliance solution is integrally important for BAs–especially if you’re working within the mail industry. In one instance alone last year, over 11,000 people had letters containing PHI incorrectly delivered to an unintended recipient, leaving the integrity of their health and identity completely exposed to malicious third parties.
And though a breach itself is cause enough for concern, the associated fines and litigation that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been levying against BAs responsible for these breaches has reached the highest point in the history of HIPAA regulation and enforcement to date. Compliance is no longer just a problem for doctors and hospitals, and the importance of finding a total solution that works for you is more pressing now than ever before.
Compliancy Group LLC allows anyone to simplify the growing challenges of HIPAA compliance. The Guard™ is our simple, cost-effective, web-based solution that can help any organization regulate and monitor all aspects of their HIPAA compliance throughout their business. With Compliancy Group, you’ll be guided by our team of Compliance Coaches™ to Achieve, Illustrate, and Maintain™ compliance with confidence under the full spectrum of HIPAA, HITECH, and Omnibus regulations.
