The HIPAA Audits Program Objectives

With the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights or OCR starting its pilot phase of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Audit Program, an audit will begin for 150 covered entities. There is a speculation as to whether the business associates of the covered entities will be audited as well. The OCR will audit the applied protocols and evaluate any weaknesses in the program besides promoting the best practices. This progression will help the OCR as a guide to collect information on how to conduct and direct HIPAA compliance audits for business associates and covered entities for the future.

Whether there are egregious or unintentional deficiencies, enforcement laws will be applied according to the various levels of non-compliance to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Audit Program. The overview displays that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, in Section 13411 of the HITECH Act has directed the HHS to conduct periodic audits to guarantee that business associates and covered entities to comply with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and Breach Notification standards. With the specified mandate in the progression and implementation stage, the OCR will begin in November 2011 and would be completed by December 2012.

The program objectives will be one of the facets of the OCR’s security, privacy and health information program. The OCR will utilize the audit program to determine the efforts made to comply with the protocols required by HIPAA. The final audit process will exhibit the best practices which will be shared the OCR and serve as a guide to identify challenges of the compliance rules faced by the covered entities and their business associates. The security and privacy audit process will comply with the known audit rules and the OCR will inform the chosen entities for the auditing process to submit audit reports as well as being available for on-site visits. Interviews will take place during site visits with the main personnel concerned with observation and examination of the processes for compliance. The audit reports will display the process of conducting the audit, the findings and the response of the covered entity to any actions on the findings. The final report will hold solutions of revised actions to the rules of compliance and the covered entity will be given opportunities to discuss concerns and identification of any deficits so that they can implement the best practices. 

For more information, visit http://www.usmedicaltranscriptionservice.com/ or call 1-800-723-4308