Yesterday, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released its 2016-2017 HIPAA Audits Report. Although this seems outdated, it typically takes this long to compile the data. They reviewed selected covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) for HIPAA compliance of the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules.
DHHS is required by law under the HITECH Act to conduct periodic audits. The chances of a random audit are slim, but they do happen, and you must be prepared. Don’t be fooled by a slim chance of a random audit, you can be audited for many other reasons! This audit comprised of 166 covered entities and 41 business associates. The OCR publishes this report to share the overall findings.
A summary of the audit findings includes:
- Most CEs met the timeliness requirements for providing breach notification to individuals.
- Most CEs that maintained a website about their customer services or benefits satisfied the requirement to prominently post their Notice of Privacy Practices on their website.
- Most CEs failed to provide all of the required content for a Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Most CEs failed to provide all of the required content for breach notification to individuals.
- Most CEs failed to properly implement the individual right of access requirements such as timely action within 30 days and charging a reasonable cost-based fee.
- Most CEs and BAs failed to implement the HIPAA Security Rule requirements for risk analysis and risk management.
“The audit results confirm the wisdom of OCR’s increased enforcement focus on hacking and OCR’s Right of Access initiative,” said OCR Director Roger Severino. “We will continue our HIPAA enforcement initiatives until health care entities get serious about identifying security risks to health information in their custody and fulfilling their duty to provide patients with timely and reasonable, cost-based access to their medical records.”
The 2016-2017 HIPAA Audits Industry Report may be found at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hipaa-audits-industry-report.pdf
If you need assistance with HIPAA Risk Management or guidance with your HIPAA Compliance contact us at 877.659.2467 or complete the contact us form.
