Importance of HIPAA Compliance in Medical Transcription

HIPAA Compliance is the abbreviation of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This legal intervention set specific regulatory that is aimed at protecting sensitive patient data. To maintain transparency in the process, Medical transcription service companies should ensure HIPAA Compliance. HIPAA Compliance measures must be adhered with different healthcareservices, for example, while providing treatment, payment. Medical Transcribers and Healthcare professionals dealing with patient data management access must abide by HIPAA Compliance.

Medical transcription experts transcribe voice-recorded medical reports of patients delivered by physicians or other health care providers. In this blog, we will explore the importance ofHIPAA Compliance in Medical Transcription. 

·       HIPAA PRIVACY AND HIPAA SECURITY RULES: The first stage of HIPAA Compliance where all the specific national standards for HIPAA Privacy Rule for protecting electronic transcribed medical reports of patients are reported. Apart from that Transcriptions and standard codes, employer identifier Standard, National Provider Identifier Standard, security rules and others are also added in this stage. All these legal codes are mandatory while transferring files using encryption, using firewalls to restrict unauthorised access, password protection, and others. 

·     PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL SAFEGUARDS:Organisations that are dealing with sensitive patient data need to have HIPAA compliance. In this concern, the limited facility is given to organisations to control authorised access. There are specific policies on how to get access to different workstations. Employees are trained in handling ePHI, emergency control procedures, and automatic login/off—auditing reports and others. 

·   RECENT HIPAA UPDATES: In 2020 there have been some changes in Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act that is focused on reviewing Breach Notification Rule 2009 to bring necessary changes in every six years. Right to Patients’ Data is introduced so that a patient party can ask for a copy of health data. Within 30 days, officials are bound to respond to these requests. Specific changes are proposed to be done to disclose Personal Health Information for better health operations. Clear housing’s access to PHI is offered in better healthcare. To the lessen the burden of recent Covid-19 pandemic, specific changes are implemented in HIPAA compliance to deliver high-quality service. 

To wrap up

HIPPA compliance adds a layer of trust and transparency to protect patient's data and improves the efficiency in medical transcription with its specific guidelines. Its adequate measures also help in the processing of health insurance without compromising any health data.