HIPAA Risk Assessment

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Basically it is a federal law that protects individuals’ health care information and restricts access to the information except where allowed by law. Any company that deals with information regarding individuals’ health and personal information needs to be in compliance with HIPAA. In an effort to assist companies that deal with personal health information, certain safeguards have been created. The HIPAA risk assessment is a set of questions that assess a company’s risk to leaking clients’ private information that has been protected by law.

There are nine necessary steps to risk assessment: scope of analysis, data collection, identifying and documenting potential threats and vulnerabilities, assessing current vulnerabilities, assessing current security measures, determining likelihood of a threat occurrence, determining level of risk, finalizing documentation, and periodic review and updates to risk assessment. Potential vulnerabilities within the network’s system are identified and plans are put into place to quickly resolve any compromised situations. The risk assessment also looks at what kind of information you are collecting and where it is going. Everything must be HIPAA compliant to ensure individuals’ privacy. How your data is protected is important for your safety and privacy. There are many security measures that can and should be taken to protect information, whether it is for virtual information such as encryption and passwords or physical safeguards such as locks.

Knowing potential risks and the level of them enables companies to be more defensive in protecting themselves again information leaks. Documenting everything and remaining current on modern technology allows a company to stay on top of their risk assessment and alter their policies and systems to reflect new risks. Following the guidelines and remaining in compliance with HIPAA is the best way to keep clients’ information safe.