Meaningful Use Incentive Payments – OIG Audits Begin
The lesson to be learned from recent audits – security risk analysis is imperative for all health care enterprises. And this is a measure that cannot be taken lightly! The responsibility of protecting confidential patient data rests with healthcare enterprises and not EHR vendors. That is all the more reason why no organization can afford to ignore the consequences of a data loss!
‘Meaningful use‘ risk analysis is critical to your compliance program. Organizations and professionals that fail to conduct a proper risk analysis expose themselves to fines, lawsuits, and loss of incentive funding. A preemptive security risk analysis is thus vital to prevent your healthcare practice from falling victim to a security breach.
Of course meeting this requirement is logical and simple – just embrace the analysis as a way to identify threats and protect electronic health information. Here’s what you can do to ensure that data loss is effectively plugged in breach-prone areas:
Portable devices
Unencrypted patient data on portable devices like a laptop, Smartphone, PDAs are plain disasters waiting to happen! Thefts, stolen devices, unattended devices are common occurrences. Ensure that patient data is encrypted regardless of the device it resides in.
PC desktops
Again, the same worry of unauthorized access. Desktops need to be locked and workstations moved away from the view of people standing in line.
Paper/Fax/Email
To ensure that they don’t get into the wrong hands, all paper records containing patient information need to be shredded. Patient information can be compromised when data is faxed to the wrong number, or emailed to a wrong recipient. Slow down & pay attention.
Children
Take extra care with medical records of patients younger than 18 years. The state regulations vary; so stay abreast of the federal and your state’s rules.
Besides this, you could also adopt a comprehensive platform like Aegify Security Posture Management, Aegify Risk Manager or Aegify SecureGRC. These solutions from eGestalt come with the capability to perform a detailed risk analysis using a sophisticated model, supporting you through the processes of security risk analysis.
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