Components And Benefits Of The Hipaa Security Risk Assessment

By Author: Shanay Tripathi
Total Articles: 29
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For every healthcare organization, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) help in setting some guidelines. These guidelines are for the protection of the personal details of the patients called protected health information (PHI).

The healthcare organization needs to follow these guidelines and failure to do so can lead to the payment of hefty fines and penalties. In extreme cases, the healthcare organization can lead to the loss of their medical licenses.

Components considered during the HIPAA security risk assessment:

The different components that are given stress while performing the security risk assessment under HIPAA include:

Scope of analysis: defines the scope based on the security, integrity, and availability aspects for the maintenance and storage of the data.


Data collection: It includes collection, storage, maintenance, receipt, and transmission of the data.


Identification of threats and vulnerabilities: This involves identifying the key risk factors.


Access ...
... security measures: It enlists all the available security mechanisms for data safety.


Determination of threat occurrence: This helps in the prediction of the threats.


Determination of risk level: The level of risk is defined.


Document finalization: all the details regarding the risk and response are documented.


Periodic review and update: HIPAA assessment is performed periodically to check for the new risks.

Benefits gained by doing the HIPAA security risk assessment:

The different added benefits of doing the HIPAA security risk assessment in the organization include:

A full appreciation is provided to the clients based on the current situation of the security vulnerabilities.

This assessment provides a comprehensive documented solution that gives the details to the client regarding the appropriate actions required for securing the EPHI.

The process of risk analysis directly and automatically helps in generating the justification required for the security recommendations for the business.

It allows for the development of a definitive plan of action for allowing the clients towards full compliance.

It brings a consistent and objective-based approach to security reviews. This is applied to the different applications and systems within the organization.

The organization gets a documented track record of successfully implementing solutions for security.

Conclusion: For any health care organization, it is important to perform and understand the security risks involves. This assessment includes checking and reviewing their processes, systems, hardware, infrastructure, etc. This HIPAA security risk assessment is essential for providing HIPAA compliance to the organization. This compliance is mandatory for organizations to prevent paying heavy penalties.

Author Bio: Ms. Shanay Tripathi is a 45-year old senior supervisor working for a reputed company. She assists other health care organizations with HIPAA security risk assessments. They have the expertise with healthcare, healthcare technologies, and HIPAA thus providing the best solutions.