Did you know that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), responsible for enforcing HIPAA compliance, received more than 306,000 complaints regarding HIPAA violations between 2003 and 2022? Such violations were found in healthcare entities ranging from major medical facilities to small, independent practices–anyone dealing with personal health information could be found out of compliance.

When the OCR receives a complaint, that often results in a HIPAA audit on that healthcare practice. But what exactly is involved in a HIPAA audit? And how can your holistic practice ensure you maintain HIPAA compliance?

In this article, we’ll cover all of that and provide helpful tips for you to conduct your own internal audit. Keep reading to learn more!

What Is a HIPAA Audit?

To answer this question, let’s first recap what exactly HIPAA is: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law on August 21, 1996. 

It’s the cornerstone legislation that created national standards to protect sensitive information regarding patient health from being discussed or handled without the patient’s knowledge or consent. Essentially, HIPAA provides and affirms a patient’s right to privacy.

The latest legislative update pertaining to HIPAA was the Final Omnibus Rule, which was approved in 2013 and refined important definitions and included requirements for new technology, such as cell phones.

Since there are so many elements in this legislation, it’s imperative that your holistic practice stay vigilantly compliant or else you risk having a HIPAA complaint and audit levied against your practice.

A HIPAA audit conducted by the OCR will investigate a number of areas within your practice and operations, including:

• Privacy Rule standards
• Security Rule standards
• Security IT risk assessment
• Physical site
• Asset and device
• HITECH compliance

Having an external audit performed by the OCR on your holistic practice is no small bump in the road; this process can take months from start to finish.

How Can a HIPAA Audit Impact Your Holistic Practice?

HIPAA audits can be costly and time-consuming for your holistic practice, both in terms of financial and reputational. If your practice is found out of compliance, then that can be damaging to your standing in the field and can result in lost business or further legal action. Don’t underestimate how important HIPAA compliance is in your practice!

5 Tips for Preparing for a HIPAA Audit

Now that we’ve reviewed what is involved in a HIPAA audit and how it can impact your holistic practice, let’s look at some of our top tips for preventing an external audit:

Make HIPAA Training Mandatory for Your Employees

No matter how many employees your holistic practice has–even if it’s just you–it’s vital that HIPAA training is part of your onboarding curriculum. After all, knowledge is power. If you or your staff aren’t well-versed in HIPAA’s standards, then it’ll be nearly impossible to ensure that your practice is in compliance.

Create a Risk Assessment Plan

If you want to avoid an external audit, then it’s a great idea to regularly perform internal audits of your own practice! Part of this entails creating a risk assessment plan, which analyzes every aspect of your practice to see where there might be room for improvement and map out an action plan in the event of a breach.

Know Where Your Documents Are at All Times

Carefully track where all your paper-based or electronic personal health information is stored, handled, and transferred. Whether it’s in old-school filing cabinets, desktops, mobile devices, shelves, or somewhere else, it’s important to know where your documents are.

Do Your Research

The OCR provides some general instructions for entities undergoing a HIPAA audit, including definitions of important terms. For example, “information systems” includes hardware, software, communications, people, information data, applications, and more. Check out their guidelines at this link here.

Partner with a Medical Billing Firm

The friendly experts here at Holistic Billing Services are HIPAA certified to handle your patients’ PHI while boosting your overall revenue cycle! Your success is our success, and we offer a range of services to help put more time and energy back into your day.

We’ll build a custom solution for your practice and empower you to get back to what matters most: delivering quality care to your patients. Our operations are grounded in professional, technical, and global billing for holistic care practices, no matter your specialty. 

To learn more about how outsourced medical billing with Holistic Billing Services can streamline your practice, contact us today.