Protected health information breaches have been a serious concern in recent years, and the HIPAA Security Rule was developed to give firms administrative, physical, and technical rules for protecting their electronic PHI.
Organizations can use best practices to secure their ePHI by understanding the rules and their larger purpose. Below are the best tips for HIPAA breach prevention, so continue reading.
1 Do a HIPAA security evaluation
This includes assessing your company’s security policies and processes to make sure they are updated and account for any changes to the operational environment.
There are various methods for doing this. through penetration, internal, and external audits, through the use of social engineering techniques such as phony phone calls, phishing emails, and desk checks for passwords left exposed.
2. Conduct a HIPAA risk analysis.
According to experts, this risk analysis goes beyond the high-level assessment and applies to the PHI data assets found during the inventory and security assessments. In order to adequately identify and mitigate them, they stated, “this involves an assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the security, integrity, and availability of electronic PHI.”
For the majority of firms, it has been challenging to quantify the financial effects of these risks up until now. Experts cited a recent paper that examined the financial effects of compromised PHI on a business and provided methods for such organizations to assess the potential expenses of a breach, should one occur.
3. Have a mitigation plan in place

According to experts “Understanding the particular risks, a company faces might assist it to establish the proper preventative steps essential for compliance with federal rules.” “The HIPAA Security Rule ought to be regarded as the minimum standard for PHI protection.
All facets of the HIPAA Security Regulation should be addressed in a compliance and mitigation plan.” These should include technical safeguards like user authentication, encryption when appropriate, access and audit controls for access to PHI, and mechanisms for securely transmitting data.
Administrative safeguards should also be included, such as policies and procedures around new technologies like texting or social media use. Physician safeguards should also be included.