Breaking Compliance News Blog

They all were involved in reported HIPAA privacy breaches due to their celebrity status.

The pandemic has led covered entities and business associates to rethink training.

For starters, in-services are not always practical right now. With more remote employees, and concerns about trying to contain spread of the virus, in-person, classroom-style training is not working for everyone.

Plus, many providers are dealing with an evolving workforce: more agency/temp staff, more healthcare professionals newly hired due to loosened education or certification requirements during COVID-19. All of these people need training - and providers have less time to train.

Compliance and HIPAA training does not have to be in the form of a live in-service to be effective. 

MPA's Compliance and HIPAA Training Handbooks can help.

The pandemic has led covered entities and business associates to rethink training.

For starters, in-services are not always practical right now. With more remote employees, and concerns about trying to contain spread of the virus, in-person, classroom-style training is not working for everyone.

Plus, many providers are dealing with an evolving workforce: more agency/temp staff, more healthcare professionals newly hired due to loosened education or certification requirements during COVID-19. All of these people need training - and providers have less time to train.

Compliance and HIPAA training does not have to be in the form of a live in-service to be effective. 

MPA's Compliance and HIPAA Training Handbooks can help.

It is common for covered entities and business associates to train employees at hire and (at least) annually. What’s not as common is including other parties in the organization’s HIPAA training program. Contracted staff, temp/agency staff, volunteers, board members, and students can be considered part of an organization’s workforce – meaning, they need to be trained on HIPAA. And, during the pandemic, many providers have expanded the types of individuals that are part of their team.

In June 2020, The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association published survey results: Compliance and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This survey of compliance professionals found:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has upended countless organizations and how people work... compliance programs have also felt the impact. Teams have had to adjust the way they work to ensure that regulatory mandates are still met - all while staying on top of the myriad regulation changes meant to address the pandemic."

I think we can all agree it has not been easy.

Here is what your healthcare professional peers say about COVID-19's effect on compliance:

During the pandemic, healthcare providers have seen countless headlines announcing both HIPAA guidance related to COVID-19, and HIPAA breaches. For example:

• Health care providers can contact former COVID-19 patients about blood and plasma donation opportunities
• Cyber-scams skyrocket during the pandemic
• Football player Ezekiel Elliott's COVID-19 test results leaked to the media
• OCR issues guidance on when healthcare providers can provide media access during COVID-19
• Nurse investigated for sharing video about fellow nurse who died of COVID-19
• Privacy issues with no-contact temperature taking

If your HIPAA training hasn't changed in response to this guidance and headlines, that could be a problem.

The pandemic has led covered entities and business associates to rethink training.

For starters, in-services are not always practical right now. With more remote employees, and concerns about trying to contain spread of the virus, in-person, classroom-style training is not working for everyone.

Plus, many providers are dealing with an evolving workforce: more agency/temp staff, more healthcare professionals newly hired due to loosened education or certification requirements during COVID-19. All of these people need training - and providers have less time to train.

Compliance and HIPAA training does not have to be in the form of a live in-service to be effective. 

MPA's Compliance and HIPAA Training Handbooks can help.