If you are not aware of the HITRUST framework, it is essential to understand what it is. But to understand why the HITRUST framework is crucial, you must dive a little further and genuinely understand the nuances of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
A bit of dive into this concept will help you gain exposure to components such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the value that it brings to the table, and why it matters to firms, agencies, hospital systems, and anyone who interacts with the world of healthcare.
Here is what you must know about HIPAA certification and the HITRUST framework.
What is HIPAA?
If you are not aware of HIPAA, then you are not alone. Not many people know about this unless they are involved in the medical industry. Indeed, countless individuals across the world go to hospitals without genuinely understanding HIPAA. It makes sense because they may be consumers of healthcare. But if you are a producer in healthcare in some form or fashion, you must know about this concept.
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This was an act that passed due to legislation in the United States after 1995 and before 1997.
This legislation was passed because Congress or lawmakers were informed of potential hazards within the healthcare sector. Here are the critical factors of HIPAA that made the most sense for society.
- The HIPAA act made it to where all types of Americans would have the ability to port over their health insurance coverage even after they shifted job situations.
- The HIPAA act makes it to where it discourages fraud and other malicious types of intent in healthcare.
- It is a piece of legislation that requires generally accepted standards across the board for health care information on various mediums.
- It provides tax-related information for tax information and criteria for the medical industry.
- The bill clarifies health care changes, reform, and treatment for those with pre-existing conditions.
- The bill clarifies transparency around corporate life insurance and care for those who renounce their United States citizenship.
- Yet another crucial aspect of the legislation is that of data privacy and extreme standards for data security.
Why Does HIPAA Matter?
As you can see, each of these aspects matters to healthcare consumers, which is everyone. For instance, if someone loses or switches their job, it would be great to have coverage during the transition phase. The discouragement and minimization of fraud in the healthcare industry help keep costs lower as the system will not break due to more strength.
Individuals would also see that standardizing elements across the healthcare system would help individuals port over data and streamline the healthcare sector.
As one progresses in the modern era, they find out how valuable their healthcare data is and how it can genuinely make a difference in their lives. It would be best to keep it private and ensure that only the correct recipients see the healthcare information.
The other elements or titles of the act provide value to firms and employees around whole life insurance, pre-existing conditions, and tax information that helps them plan and do well.
As you can see, HIPAA certainly matters a great deal to everyone involved in the healthcare sector. The government has collaborated with the private sector to bring about a certification to ensure that various firms are compliant with HIPAA.
That brings us to the point of HIPAA certification.
What is HIPAA Certification?
HIPAA certification is when an individual or representatives from a business or other entity undergoes courses and studies that help them learn all about the ways to become HIPAA compliant.
But this is where it gets tricky. Recall that if you get HIPAA certification, that does not mean that you are fully compliant. It does indicate that you or someone from your organization has done the work to learn about HIPAA. Further, it indicates the organization knows how to apply these principles to their respective entity.
It is essential to find a good firm that will provide you or someone from your firm with the proper HIPAA certification knowledge.
Intriguingly, present standards are surrounding the certification of compliance with HIPAA. That means that while you have your HIPAA certification, you must implement what you have learned within your organization to ensure you are compliant. Experts suggest conducting regular evaluations technically to ensure security elements and procedures continue to align with HIPAA expectations.
One can utilize other parties to ensure that HIPAA certification also translates to HIPAA compliance.
HIPAA certification matters to healthcare workers, business entities, and those related to handling information or instituting software for the healthcare sector.
This may be a bit befuddling and confounding to various individuals and organizations. As such, firms may ensure to streamline the process by working with the HITRUST framework.
What is the HITRUST Framework?
If the element of HIPAA compliance matters, then so does HIPAA certification. But it would be better for organizations of all types to use a framework that helps them to streamline the process.
That is where the HITRUST framework comes into play.
The HITRUST framework ensures that HIPAA certification and other types of accreditation are taken care of in a more seamless manner. It notes this through the idea of one framework, one assessment, across the world.
Through the HITRUST program and HITRUST CSF, organizations have access to a holistic set of certifications that provide them with overall regulatory compliance. This is essential in an era where more organizations may have to follow more rules and regulations.
This comprehensive, unified overarching security and privacy framework enable individuals to have exposure risk and compliance-oriented frameworks that set the organization up for a better situation.
This framework is likely to help with certification and compliance while implementing data security in a core manner.
