Classifying Business Associates A “Business Associate” (BA) is a person or entity that performs certain functions or activities involving the use or disclosure of PHI on behalf of the Covered Entity (your office). A clinic will often use a variety of applications, software, or people to carry out daily chiropractic business functions. The Privacy Rule…
What is a Business Associate Agreement? Once you have identified where PHI resides in the clinic, the next step is to assess who has access. A clinic should take a close look at their vendors and see what services they perform and then determine if it involves viewing or accessing PHI. Once a clinic has…
Defining TPO The HIPAA Privacy Rule generally prohibits providers from using or disclosing Protected Health Information (PHI) unless authorized by the patient. This general rule has some exceptions that allow providers to function without having to report every disclosure or obtain authorization from the patient. The HIPAA Privacy Rule was not established to keep providers…
Tracking PHI in the Clinic PHI is at the very core of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The underlying purpose of HIPAA is to keep personally identifiable information in a patient’s health record or any information about his/her health private and protected. This includes all health information, whether physical, electronic, or verbal….
PHI is an acronym for Protected Health Information. Although most clinics know the term, they lack the ability to properly identify it. Even more importantly, identifying where it resides in the clinic’s workflow. Identifying PHI and tracking it is part of HIPAA compliance. After all, how can you protect something if you do not know…
HIPAA’s Language It has been said that HIPAA has its own language. Sometimes it can be a challenge to decipher the acronyms and their meaning. As you train your staff and develop HIPAA policies, you will often come across the following terms: Take the time to thoroughly understand the meaning of these terms and the…