5 Things You Need to Know for HIPAA Compliance in 2023
Posted on: December 2nd, 2022 04:12 pm
Updated on: May 18th, 2023 02:59 pm
HIPAA compliance is changing. New ways of working in the healthcare industry, the migration to digital, and evolving technologies have driven updates to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, set to take effect in 2023. But it’s not just the official rules that have changed; it’s also the approach to compliance.
If the evolution of HIPAA is necessary, then the mindset shift is just as essential. Healthcare organizations must safeguard protected health information (PHI) and continue to build trust with patients, and they can do that with the proper considerations in mind.
To stay compliant, pay attention to these 5 key trends next year.
1. Convergence of HIPAA Security and Privacy
With the advent of Electronic Medical Records and other new healthcare technology, security and privacy have started to converge to the point where they have become nearly one and the same. Sensitive electronic protected health information (ePHI) cannot be safeguarded without proper security, and security is in place to protect patient privacy.
In the past, the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule could be thought of as having distinct purposes. While this is still true in some ways, it’s becoming apparent that the two rules are growing stickier with each other. Therefore, for the present and future, healthcare leaders should consider them intersecting elements of HIPAA compliance.
Increasingly, implementing proper procedures for data handling, patient rights, and effective security practices is at the forefront. The lines are blurring between security and privacy, and keeping this perspective in mind will be critical in 2023 and beyond, especially with new HIPAA privacy regulations coming in Q1.
For 2023, patient rights to access data are being more clearly defined, as well as the responsibility of healthcare organizations to:
- Respond to requests
- Verify the identity of parties requesting PHI
- Adequately handle data with third parties
If you haven’t done so, it’s helpful to refresh yourself on the proposed updates.
To prepare for the new year, your entire staff must be fully aware of the changes and ready to stay compliant. Implement workforce training for your team that gets every employee up to speed on the updates –– you probably want to train more than once. You can use HIPAA compliance software to set automated reminders to remind you to schedule training sessions, conduct HIPAA risk assessments, and execute HIPAA compliance training.
2. Workforce Training: Phishing and Cyber-Awareness
Employee education has become critical to following HIPAA compliance, particularly when protecting against breaches. Since cyberattacks are growing more sophisticated, it’s easy for anyone to fall victim to threats like phishing attacks. In 2021, 83% of organizations reported experiencing phishing attacks, and an additional six billion attacks are expected to occur this year.
To combat threats like phishing, you must train your entire workforce thoroughly and regularly on:
- Identifying signs of an attack
- Correctly reporting the incident
- Taking steps to safeguard against threats.
Training can be done on a repeatable basis for your entire staff and should be incorporated into your onboarding.
Use software like an LMS (learning management system) or your HIPAA Compliance solution to help with workforce training.
3. Incorporating Cybersecurity Best Practices with 405(d)
As changes to HIPAA take effect next year, effective cybersecurity must be a top priority, not only for data protection but to prevent harmful data breaches and theft. But knowing how to improve your organization’s security standards and procedures can be challenging.
In 2017, a task group of IT, healthcare, cybersecurity, and privacy experts came together to create free resources for the public to strengthen security practices and help people understand Section 405(d) of the Cybersecurity Act (CSA) of 2015.
Section 405(d) of the CSA, “Aligning the Health Care Industry Security Approaches,” addresses how to improve cybersecurity in the healthcare industry through recognized best practices and methodologies.
Your team should be well aware of these best practices, and their departments must review these standards. Check out the official website to access templates, resources, news, and guidelines.
As you build on your knowledge of security practices, remember to conduct a regular SRA (Security Risk Assessment). A HIPAA compliance software solution can help you complete this critical check and contacting a 405(d) expert for help implementing best practices can also ensure your regular SRA completion.
4. The Importance of Remediation and Implementation
The DOJ emphasizes that no organization can succeed in compliance without taking proper remedial action and that the lack of proper remediation and implementation increases a company’s likelihood of facing charges and penalties.
That’s why in 2023, more organizations are turning towards compliance automation software to manage their risk assessment processes.
One of the major benefits of automation is that you can spend less time assessing risks and more time remediating, which is a challenge for all organizations but the best way to improve security and compliance posture.
One way to mitigate the challenge of switching to automation is to choose the right partner to guide you through the risk management journey. This alleviates the burden of having to implement and master automation on your own.
In addition to switching to automation, implementing proper procedures for data handling and security best practices can also be a struggle for smaller organizations, so focusing on prioritizing, centralizing, templatizing, and tracking remediation will be more important than ever.
5. Responding to an Incident: How to Get Yourself Ready
If a data breach or cyberattack on your organization or medical practice does occur, you must be ready to resolve the incident quickly. Work with your team to create effective response and reporting procedures for every type of incident.
Note that the HHS lists all breaches reported within the last 24 months that are currently under investigation. Your team should monitor the list as a reminder of the increasing prominence of cyberattacks and data breaches. They should also use this resource to reflect on their own security procedures and weaknesses.
If you do experience a security incident, follow the industry standard incident response steps for guidance:
- Prepare: Review all your IT assets at your healthcare organization, from computers and tablets to software and electronic data. Once you’ve compiled a complete list of IT assets and their roles, set up consistent monitoring and determine the signs that indicate a disturbance.
- Detect and Analyze: Collect data from all your programs and watch for attack or breach indicators. If an indicator is identified, then analyze the current status of your systems and decide whether there isanything that deviates from the expected baseline to a threatening level.
- Contain, Eradicate, Recover: Your team’s first priority is to stop the attack before it causes more damage. When there is an incident, contact your security partner right away. Your IT experts should have a containment plan for multiple incident types. Once the threat is contained, it’s time to switch from defense to offense: Take steps to eradicate the threat from your systems. That might mean resetting passwords, removing malware, and executing all necessary updates. After the threat is eliminated, restore your systems and resume normal operations.
- Post-Incident Review: Once your systems are recovered, review the recent incident and use it for future learning. Decide if there are any ways to improve your response plan and if so, update your current procedures.
Start Planning for 2023
To ensure HIPAA compliance for next year, it’s imperative that you understand the upcoming changes to HIPAA regulations, incorporate cybersecurity best practices, and prepare your workforce to identify threats. The right HIPAA compliance solution helps you prepare with SRAs, automated reminders, workforce training, and more. Learn more about HIPAA One today.
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