The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) 2016-2017 HIPAA Audits Report for selected health care entities and business associates has been released. Not surprising to our firm, the health care entities reviewed failed consistently on some basic HIPAA standards.
We believe that the risk analysis and risk management requirements not being met is the most concerning. The initial critical step in a HIPAA compliance review is a risk analysis.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act requires HHS to periodically audit covered entities and business associates for their compliance with the HIPAA Rules. OCR conducted audits of 166 covered entities and 41 business associates and has notified these organizations of OCR’s findings. OCR is publishing this Industry Report to share the overall findings on compliance with the audited provisions of the HIPAA Rules within a sample of the regulated industry. A summary of the audit findings includes:
- Most covered entities met the timeliness requirements for providing breach notification to individuals.
- Most covered entities that maintained a website about their customer services or benefits satisfied the requirement to prominently post their Notice of Privacy Practices on their website.
- Most covered entities failed to provide all of the required content for a Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Most covered entities failed to provide all of the required content for breach notification to individuals.
- Most covered entities failed to properly implement the individual right of access requirements such as timely action within 30 days and charging a reasonable cost-based fee.
- Most covered entities and business associates failed to implement the HIPAA Security Rule requirements for risk analysis and risk management.
This report should be a warning to all health care organizations that the OCR will be focusing on HIPAA Compliance for the next 3 to 5 years. Health care organizations should consider conducting a HIPAA compliance review as a major business goal.
The 2016-2017 HIPAA Audits Industry Report may be found at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hipaa-audits-industry-report.pdf – PDF