HIPAA expert Rebecca Herold offers a very compelling explanation of the value of HIPAA training. She writes:
Information security and privacy education is more important than ever because new gadgets and technologies enable more healthcare workers to collect and share data.
In September 2015, Cancer Care Group agreed to settle HIPAA violations by paying a $750,000 fine and adopting a “robust corrective action plan to correct deficiencies in its HIPAA compliance program.” One of the major requirements for Cancer Care Group was to review and revise its training program, because the breach was caused by an easily preventable employee action (leaving a laptop with clear text files of 55,000 patients in an unsecured car).
Training needs to be more than once a year, and as soon as, or prior to, the start of employment. There also need to be ongoing awareness communications and activities, as required by HIPAA.
Every organization of every size needs to invest some time and resources into regular training and ongoing awareness communications. Besides being a wise business decision, it’s also a requirement in most data protection laws and regulations to provide such education.
To this, all I can say is: Amen.
Rebecca is the author of several great resources on HIPAA, including The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance.
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This post was authored by Professor Daniel J. Solove, who through TeachPrivacy develops computer-based privacy training, data security training, HIPAA training, and many other forms of awareness training on privacy and security topics. This post was originally posted on his blog at LinkedIn, where Solove is a “LinkedIn Influencer.” His blog has more than 900,000 followers.
Professor Solove is the organizer, along with Paul Schwartz of the Privacy + Security Forum (Oct. 24-26, 2016 in Washington, DC), an annual event that aims to bridge the silos between privacy and security.
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