I loved working at a nonprofit. Knowing that everyday my job made a difference in my community was very fulfilling. It was also some of the most creative work I’ve ever done – stretching a thin budget while having limited resources and manpower to achieve outcomes is definitely an art form. Which is why I hate to give you one more thing to worry about, but it is something every nonprofit should consider – HIPAA.
Why should your non-profit worry about HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) impacts any organization that deals with individuals’ identifiable health information. For nonprofits who work in social services and at-risk populations, this could mean a lot of potential exposure for HIPAA violations. For example, if your nonprofit assists individuals with developmental disabilities and needs to send information about clients to case workers – if that information contains identifiable health information (like a name and disability), then it needs to be protected. Depending on the type of violation, any breach of personal health information (PHI) can lead to fines from $100 to over $50,000 per violation. Money that could be used to further your mission instead of paying fines.
What to do about it?
The biggest thing is to not let fear of being HIPAA violations stop you from achieving your mission in the most efficient way possible. As you have probably already experienced on a personal level, many healthcare practices like dentists do not send anything out by email – not even appointment reminders. Other practices institute patient portals that can cost over $40,000 a year to maintain. But you can still send email or share a file electronically, you just need to be sure that it is delivered to the right recipient in an encrypted format. But that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive either.
How Paubox can help non-profits
Paubox provides a seamless HIPAA compliant email solution that guarantees all outbound email will be delivered encrypted, with no extra steps added. In addition, we offer a simple HIPAA compliant file sharing solution – something even Dropbox doesn’t yet do. We have been proud to help our nonprofit clients be confident their email and file sharing meets stringent military grade encryption standards at very reasonable prices. To get started and inquire about a free trial contact Paubox today.
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