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Hipaa And It Audits : Hipaa

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HIPAA and IT Audits
Due to the high risk to information systems, many organizations do not conduct a periodic risk analysis and are not able to know where they stand. This may seem blatantly obvious, but it is something many of the healthcare organizations continue to wonder about. In order to improve the effectiveness and proficiency of the health care system, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191, includes Administrative Simplification requirements for HHS to accept national standards for electronic health care operations and code sets, unique health identifiers, and security (Sullivan, 2014). Enforcement of the Privacy Rule that began on April 14, 2003 for most HIPAA covered objects. …show more content…

HIPAA Security Rule and Privacy Rule
Typically, HIPAA regulations cover both security and privacy of protected health information. Security and privacy are dissimilar, but go hand-in-hand. The Privacy rule emphasizes the right of an individual to control the use of his or her personal information. Protected health information (PHI) should not be disclosed or used by others against their wishes. The Privacy rule covers the confidentiality of PHI in all formats including electronic, paper, and oral (Sullivan, 2014). Privacy is a promise that the information will be protected from unauthorized disclosure. The somatic security of PHI in all systems is an element of the Privacy rule. The Security rule concentrates on administrative, technical, and physical safeguards since they relate to electronic PHI (ePHI) (Koontz, 2012). Protection of ePHI data from unapproved access, whether external or internal, stored or in transit, is included in the security rule. Health care providers for example, transmit health information electronically, through clearinghouses, and health plans are all protected by the Privacy Rule (Koontz, 2012). The Security Rule is exclusive to electronic PHI. It should be notated, that electronic PHI also incorporates telephone voice response and faxback systems since they are utilized as input and output devices for computers. However,

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