A Breach Could Be Good Medicine

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A Breach Could Be Good Medicine
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• Are you among one of those lucky healthcare
  providers who never had an experience of HIPAA
  breach of PHI or Protected Health Information?
• You have had such a tight healthcare compliance
  program that a breach has never even occurred
  in your healthcare organization which makes you
  feel confident and relaxed?
• A breach hasnt yet occurred, but are you sure
  it will never happen in the future?

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• If you feel you are all covered with a
  great healthcare compliance program for
  preventing breach of HIPAA compliance and will
  never have to face any issues, you should think
  once more.
• Statistics shows that breaches are inevitable and
  will occur at some point or the other.
• Following are some of the most common types of
  breaches.
• In the pace of usual workflow in a healthcare
  organization and course of regular patient, these
  breaches occur quite frequently.

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• Providing a patient with a visit summary that
  belongs to some other patient.
• Sending an email or fax to a wrong recipient.
• Mailing a medical record or a part of it to a
  wrong patient.
• Having our computer screens positioned in such a
  way that Protected. Health Information could be
  easily read by other visitors or patients to your
  healthcare organization.
• Having a stolen device being used for gaining
  access to or storing Protected Health Information.

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• Disposing of Protected Health Information in a
  trach can instead of shredding it first.
•  Sending a text message with PHI contained in it
  without safeguarding it as per HIPAA protocol.
• Disclosing Protected Health Information to family
  members or friends
• Having not set a monitor to a proper time out.
• Being careless about discussing PHI while in
  presence of some other people.

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• So How Can A Breach Be Good Medicine?
• While breach comes along with a lot of
  consequences, even severe ones including Medicaid
  investigations and fines, it can also be
  considered an opportunity to learn.
• By recognizing and correcting a mistake, you are
  making it less likely for that mistake from
  happening again. 
• If one makes an error, by recognizing it and
  correcting it, the probability of that mistake
  occurring again is great diminishes, which
  results in smoother and better functioning of the
  organization as a whole.

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• Yet another thing to consider. Do you really
  think that the Office for Civil Rights will
  believe that a healthcare organization has never
  faced a breach? 
• Most probably not. Also, how would you, as
  consumers, view a healthcare organization that
  has faced an occasional breach of HIPAA protocol,
  recognized it in time, reported the breach, and
  also took corrective action against it?
• You would certainly view the practice as careful,
  at least honest, attentive and responsible.

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• Finally, Breach can surely be a good medicine,
  but it doesnt mean that it should occur on
  purpose.
• Be careful always. Have a good healthcare
  compliance program in place to avoid a Breach.
• In an event of a breach taking place, take
  necessary actions and learn from it.

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