HIPAA Compliance
ASE provides IT technical support as well as compliance services for medical practices and other entities that work with patient information where a HIPAA certification is necessary. The HIPAA Certification demonstrates knowledge of privacy and security regarding patient information. ASE’s IT experts focus on the security of electronic data, the IT side of HIPAA compliance. Without security there is no privacy and this is the main theme throughout all compliance in any industry. This means that the integrity of data is questionable if there is no or minimal security to protect it. It also covers the safety of data from problems like malware and deletion. There is a process that is necessary to follow regarding compliance. Our experienced experts know that process and can easily guide you through it. Being IT Network Security engineers made it easy to obtain the HIPAA certification.
Working in the world of compliance is nothing new for ASE. Starting with FISMA and the NIST 800 compliance in 2000, ASE has provided risk assessments for the federal government for years. Adding the HIPAA certification was simply focusing on an industry that, since its beginning, ASE has been providing IT support to. Medical practices need a partner with more than just IT skills; one that has background in compliance for their industry. This translates into decisions made considering how those decisions impact compliance. For industries that handle patient information, it’s not enough to build a simple IT strategy. One must be created that coincides with compliance. This is where ASE truly helps the client. We explain what topics to address, when to address them, what to look out for and how to handle issues. ASE has seen practices try to handle all of this internally only to fail in either compliance, their main line of work or both. Let the experts handle it. Outsourcing to ASE is easy to do.
Having experts with HIPAA certifications is not the only important aspect. It is knowing the details of being a Business Associate as well. HIPAA compliance requires that all parties that have access to data in your office and/or the machines that handle the data, sign a Business Associates Agreement. One reason is so that they understand the importance of security in your office. Medical practices can rely on ASE to provide the necessary information for these agreements that protect both sides. We can work with your practice administrator designing and completing an agreement. ASE can even provide templates to be worked on with the client as a means of alleviating the pain of creating one from scratch. It must be understood that the Business Associate Agreement is just as important as following compliance.
ASE works with organizations that provide management of other HIPAA safeguards, complimenting them with management of the technical safeguards. Because of this, ASE has relationships with these other organizations which is beneficial to the client/practice. There are many large organizations that offer management of the applications they sell. When the details of what their management covers is examined, in many cases it is clear that they don’t cover the area ASE does, the IT technical side. In many cases, practices employ our consulting services to evaluate all of the vendors they use. Companies use ASE’s consulting services to help decipher what is technically being stated, do the services offered match what the business needs and much more.
Ensure You are HIPAA Compliant
If you are a medical practice and are interested in what to do to be compliant, contact ASE to talk to an IT expert with a HIPAA Certification who can answer the questions that you may have in regard to privacy and security.