HIPAA Compliance Business Associates Shouldering More Responsibilities

Business associate is an individual, group or anAssociate to report loss of unsecured data to the
organization which participates or performs someindividual patients and/or the public
activities on behalf of the Covered Entity in amedia,depending upon scale of the violation.
capacity as a business partner and is not memberThe new regulatory requirements make it
of the workforce of the Covered Entity. Thenecessary for the Business Associate to
Privacy Rule lists some of the functions orthoroughly carry out the risk analysis for their
activities, as well as the particular services, whichsystems and infrastructure to know the existent
makes a person or entity Business Associate, ifloopholes in the security. The next step is to
the activity or service involves the use ordevelop appropriate policy which effectively
disclosure of protected health information. Theremoves the security loopholes by incorporating
types of functions or activities that may make atechnical security measures like email encryption,
person or entity a business associate includesuser account management, auditing and a proper
payment or health care operations activities, asdisaster backup plan.
well as other functions or activities regulated byHenceforth the Business Associate will also play a
the Administrative Simplification Rules.more responsible and active role in secure
The new amendment to HIPAA Privacy andmanagement of the patient health information,
Security rule recently passed by Healthwhich earlier, before this amendment, was sole
Information Technology for Economic and Clinicalresponsibility of the Covered Entity.
Health Act (HITECH Act) and which came intoBusiness Associate plays important role in
effect from February 17, 2010 makes itpreserving the privacy of the patient health
mandatory for all the Covered entities to reviseinformation.
their Business Associate Contract. This hasAbout emPoweremPower is a leading provider of
increased the scope of the law as more entitiescomprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions
are obliged to follow the HIPAA compliance norms.through Learning management system (LMS). Our
At same time the amendment adds moremission is to provide innovative security solutions
responsibilities on the existing Business Associates.to enable compliance with applicable laws and
The Covered Entities and their existing Businessregulations and maximize business performance.
Associates now have to re-negotiate their existingWe provide range of courses to manage
contracts to achieve HIPAA compliance. Thecompliance required by regulatory bodies such as
Business Associates now on, have to take adoptOSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule
additional procedures to completely fulfill theetc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom
physical, administrative, technical anddemos and tutorials for your website, business
documentation requirements of the rule. Theprocess management and software
amendment makes it mandatory for the Businessimplementation.