HIPAA risk assessment tools soothe the aches and pains of compliance.
Doctors, dentists and private medical practice owners are no strangers to assessing risk. However, today’s physicians find they are spending much more time assessing security risk than health risk. Fortunately, emerging technology, specifically health security risk assessment software, is lightening the load, helping doctors spend more time with their patients.
While complex on the backend, the most impactful health security risk assessment software is easy for physicians and their staff to use. Features like HIPAA risk assessment tools and HIPAA risk assessment checklists keep otherwise weighty compliance to-do’s from getting in the way of patient care.
As HIPAA risk management becomes more intricate, care providers need easy – dare we suggest, fun – ways to get through compliance requirements quickly.
User-friendly, interactive HIPAA risk analysis checklists and other tools that make repetitive and required tasks enjoyable are gaining favor with more health care providers. This is especially true among those private medical practices with limited staff.
Why doctors must perform health security risk assessments
Evaluating the digital and physical security of health care clinic is not only the right thing to do; regulators insist leadership perform these checks on a regular basis. The HIPAA Security Rule requires that all covered entities – and importantly, their business associates – conduct such an assessment.
According to the ONC, a risk assessment helps health care providers ensure they are compliant with HIPAA’s administrative, physical and technical safeguards. It also identifies vulnerabilities that could expose protected health information (PHI). These so called “open doors” to cyber criminals, hackers and autonomous malware bots are a growing threat facing doctors dentists, and private medical practice owners globally. And yet, 95 percent of medical IT practitioners around the world say they are NOT using software for risk management. (source: 2017 IT Risks Survey). That’s scary.
Risk management can be automated
Aside from relying on HIPAA risk analysis checklists and similar tools, doctors can also use software to automate their risk management duties. Automated health security risk assessment software, like SIMBUS RA, generates real-time reports that include detailed findings and recommendations.
Software like this essentially removes the human element from risk assessment. The result is freed-up time for doctors and their staff, as well as a likely improvement in accuracy – something on which regulators naturally insist.
3 risk management software features doctors enjoy the most
Among the many features of SIMBUS RA doctors say they love, three stand out:
- The private console of SIMBUS RA allows for multiple users, so compliance duties can be shared across several team members. This further alleviates the time required to be in compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule.
- A corrective action interface makes prioritizing and addressing any negative findings easier.
- Best of all, the solution is affordable at under $1,000 for a single office. Especially when you consider the thousands of dollars a system breach or PHI exposure can cost a clinic, the ROI is incredibly clear.
Risk assessment can be done on your own
There are plenty of technology and compliance firms that can perform ongoing risk assessments on your behalf, but they are costly. Would you like to be able to perform your own assessments?
With the emergence of simple, intuitive and automated health security risk assessment software, you can. Schedule a demo today to see just how easy it can be, and why you may be the next doctor singing the praises of HIPAA risk assessment technology.