Cybersecurity attacks such as malware, phishing emails, and password attacks are a growing threat to patients and healthcare practices. Cyberattacks can significantly disrupt patient care by exposing sensitive data, interfering with access to records, and/or damaging operational systems. The HIPAA Security Rule requires healthcare professionals to develop and implement reasonable administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and security of electronic protected health information (ePHI). It has long demanded deeds. Beyond ePHI, however, medical practices need to assess risks and exposures, mitigate risks, and take precautions to protect medical practices and their patients. To this end, we summarize below some of the key steps that medical practices can take to prevent and mitigate the risk of cyberattacks.
risk analysis
The HIPAA Security Rule requires that a risk analysis be conducted to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses within a medical practice that may affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of ePHI maintained by the medical practice. required for medical practice. Although the HIPAA Security Rules do not impose a particular methodology, risk analysis must be commensurate with the scale, complexity, and capabilities of the medical practice. Furthermore, while the HIPAA security rules only require a risk analysis for ePHI, medical practices need to be assessed for risks and vulnerabilities that can affect all areas of medical practice, not just ePHI. I have.
Written Policies and Procedures
After conducting a risk analysis, medical practices should establish and implement written policies and procedures that incorporate the following data privacy and security protections:
- administrative safeguards: These are administrative actions, policies, and procedures to govern the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect ePHI and other data in healthcare practices and to manage the behavior of healthcare professionals. Here are the steps.
- physical protection: These are physical measures, policies, and procedures designed to protect medical practice electronic information systems (such as electronic medical records and electronic prescription systems) and associated buildings and facilities from natural and environmental hazards. attack.
- technical protection: These are the technologies, policies, and procedures for the use of ePHI and other data in your clinic that protect and control access to them. For example, a medical practice may implement a policy that utilizes appropriate cryptographic software such as OpenPGP (Pretty Good Privacy).
To assist healthcare practices, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) have developed a HIPAA Security Risk Assessment (SRA) tool that healthcare practices can use to enforce risk. created. Analysis and implementation of appropriate policies and procedures in compliance with HIPAA security rules.
Incident response and disaster recovery planning
Medical practices should ensure that policies and procedures include plans for responding to disasters such as cyberattacks, extreme weather events, and system outages. This can result in data breaches or interruptions, or loss of access to data. This includes a data backup plan to enable data retrieval and/or restoration without compromising data integrity, a plan to enable continuity of critical business processes, and the regularity of such plans. It includes a policy on systematic testing and revision.
training
As part of, or in addition to, HIPAA compliance training, medical practices require all staff, including all medical and non-medical personnel, to familiarize themselves with HIPAA policies and protocols for medical practices and general cybersecurity best practices. You must ensure that you receive training on
business partner
Medical practices ensure that business parties, including vendors or entities that access or use protected health information or other sensitive data on behalf of medical practices, have their own policies and procedures consistent with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations and I need to ensure that it is implemented. Cybersecurity best practices.
cyber insurance
Cyber insurance protects medical practices and other businesses against losses due to data breaches, theft, hacking and other cyberattacks. Medical practices should check existing insurance coverage to ensure they are covered in the event of a cyber-attack or similar incident.
consult legal counsel
Any medical practice that fails to adequately protect data in compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule and other data privacy laws may be subject to penalties (including fines) and other enforcement actions and legal liability. Medical practices should consult an attorney with experience in medical law and cybersecurity to review medical practice policies and protocols to ensure compliance with applicable laws and best practices.
This article Q1 2023 Edition detroit medical news.
