HIPAA Manual

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

Last week we talked about three forms you should use in your HIPAA manual, or that you should have, so that you’re compliant with HIPAA.

Today, I want to talk about your HIPAA manual. Everybody, of course, absolutely needs to have a HIPAA manual that talks about and explains your HIPAA policy, but that manual is not a dead document. You just don’t photocopy someone else’s document, put it in a three-hole ring notebook binder, and never look at it again.

You have to update your HIPAA manual on a regular basis. There are lots of forms that have to be filled out. For instance, when you train your employees, they have to sign a form that says that they have been trained. You have to have a compliance officer. That compliance officer has to sign a form that they’re the compliance officer. You have a form that lists all the compliance officers that you’ve had over a period of time.

There’s another form that you need to do that is a form that lists all your electronic devices that stores patient information and it has to make – we have to make sure that it has all your electronic devices listed on it. There’s a form that talks about how to dispose of your electronic computers properly when they’re done being used so there are a lot of forms in your HIPAA manual.

Here’s what I do. Every week before Christmas and New Year’s, I take – every year I should say, between Christmas and New Year’s, I take that week off, and one of things I do is I do all the custodial work. One of the things I do is I update our HIPAA manual for the next year, and then also make sure that everybody is trained during that same time.

There is just something for you to do to stay current. Grab your HIPAA manual, get it down off the shelf, dust it off, and bring it up to date, and I think you’ll be happier in practice because you feel more secure.

This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.