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I Thought We Shredded That!...How Off-site Shredding in Port Saint Lucie can Assist Medical Providers in HIPAA Compliance
EMR and HIPAA and Microfiche, Oh My!
277,000 Texas residents were recently the victim of possible HIPAA violations when their personal information was found floating through a local park, among other locations, in the form of microfiche. HealthCare IT News reports that the entire Texas Health System stated “We deeply regret the inconvenience to you…To help prevent something like this from happening in the future” they have hired an alternative off-site shredding company.
How comfortable are you with your current document shredding provider?
Recents changes in HIPAA compliance measures, as reported by American Medical News, highlights the need to understand and adhere to new mandates for privacy protection. ”For physicians, a business associate may be any firm that handles patient data…With contractors becoming as fully liable as everyone else affected by HIPAA, physicians’ offices are going to take on additional legal responsibilities as well…To make matters even more challenging, there are significant potential fines associated with these violations, upwards of $1 million-plus for particularly egregious cases”.
Unless your organization has a million-plus saved for the worst-case scenario of privacy breach by a business associate (or worse, your own company employees), you should take a moment to review what the regulations entail. You also should take a close look at your document storage and shredding system to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place and accountability exists for your protection. What protections should be in place?
Your Port Saint Lucie Off-site Shredding business partners should be able to provide a secure, self-contained truck for the shredding process. Large, high-volume shredders should complete the destruction within minutes, and a Certificate of Destruction is issued at the time of service.
Collection of Personal Information Documents between shredding dates should be maintained in secure collection containers. Does your document shredding service provide you with an unlimited number of containers that meet your needs?
Knowing that you collect the following list of potentially costly personal information sources means that you should be concerned about the risk of accidental violations.
• Credit information • Legal documents • Personnel records • Tax records • X Rays • Blueprints • Applications for employment • Payroll data • Social Security Numbers • Signatures • Correspondence • Patient or medical information • Plastic credit and ID cards • Deceased family member records • Junk mail with your name & address • Incidental records • Microfilm & Microfiche • CD’s, Data back-up tapes • Old or obsolete files • Customer lists & records • Bids and quotations • Invoices • Contracts • Inventory lists • R & D reports • Budget plans • Business & marketing plans • Accounting info • Canceled and blank checks • Credit card receipts & statements
If you would like an assessment of your current collection, storage, and shredding practices, we invite you to contact us and let our trained professionals guide you toward an effective system.