How is HIPAA security Risk Assessment Done?
HIPAA security Risk Assessment
If you are a HIPAA compliant organization then you can get security risk assessments done. HIPAA is a standard for sensitive patient data protection which has to be followed by all involved in healthcare. Any medical practice, health insurance plan and third-party clearing house all have to follow the HIPAA mandates.
The data is stored and transferred in electronic form. It is important to prevent cyber attacks and keep the data and the systems secure. Any amount of leakage or damage can be critical for the business. Many companies make the HIPAA compliance a mandate for their projects. You can do a HIPAA security risk assessment to know about the status of the compliance implemented.
HIPAA assessment
The assessment companies help the clients to achieve their compliance goals. The assessment process is as follows:
The company will assess the main elements of the business and define the actions that need to be taken as per the business requirements.
Approved and certified auditors form the company take a look at the business processes, controls implemented and the existing business requirements. It is then compared with the requirement of HIPAA compliance.
The auditors will conduct an internal audit to determine the status of the implemented HIPAA controls within the business’s policy procedure requirements.
Practices followed in HIPAA compliance
Some of the common practices used in HIPAA compliance are as follows:
Creating policies for using the workstations, electronic media and data access points.
There should be a policy which restricts the adding, transferring and deleting data using any type of electronic media.
You should ensure that there is no data transferable device in the business premises.
Using access controls for the data that is present in the network.
Using user ids, access procedures, auto log off and encrypting the data.
Checking all those whom the access was granted and doing random checks of the data looked upon.
Auditing and maintaining logs on hardware and software platforms.
When you want to destroy data you should use the proper integrity controls and measures. The data should be destroyed completely. You should keep a disaster recovery team ready in case of a loss.
