Just like all medical practitioners, nurses must understand HIPAA compliance and be HIPAA compliant in their communication with or about patients. Nurses play key roles in proper patient care and in safeguarding protected health information (PHI). They deal with private information daily and must be aware of how to communicate it.
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Patients and their healthcare providers need to give and receive information clearly and securely. HIPAA compliant email is one of the best ways to meet those needs. However, a HIPAA breach, intentional or accidental, is a big concern for all medical professionals and can cause undue stress on an already overworked staff. HIPAA compliant secure email provides a top option for healthcare professionals, especially nurses.
HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is U.S. legislation that protects the rights and privacy of patients. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights regulates and enforces the act. HIPAA consists of five sections (or titles), with Title II being the most referenced.
Title II sets the policies and procedures for safeguarding PHI, whether in paper or electronic (ePHI) form, and includes:
These rules and amendments strengthen and further elucidate the building blocks necessary for patient privacy and security. And, of course, patient care.
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Like all medical practitioners, nurses must follow HIPAA guidelines to protect a patient's privacy. And nurses are privy to PHI for numerous patients at any given time. Nurses constantly look after multiple records and patients when working in a small clinic or a large hospital.
SEE ALSO: The role of nurses in HIPAA compliance, healthcare security
Nurses are at the forefront of handling, managing and disclosing PHI:
Such disclosure could be to patients, their family members or other medical providers. It may also be for general HIPAA compliant documentation. And because of this, nurses must understand and follow HIPAA regulations.
HIPAA compliant email must meet the HIPAA requirements for the safe communication of PHI electronically. Sending and receiving an email with PHI is not a HIPAA violation if essential safeguards are correctly set.
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The Security Rule puts safeguards into three categories: administrative, physical and technical. For email, this could mean setting policies and procedures (administrative), verifying workstation/computer controls (physical) and monitoring login controls (technical). The idea is to restrict access, monitor use and always ensure PHI integrity and message accountability.
One critical aspect of email security is encryption. HIPAA labels encryption as "addressable" and states that it must be used if it "is a reasonable and appropriate safeguard." Unfortunately, though, there is no appropriate alternative to encryption. Therefore, healthcare organizations must take sufficient steps to secure PHI at rest (in storage) and in motion (in transit).
A HIPAA violation occurs when a healthcare professional does not properly safeguard PHI due to either negligence or an accident. HIPAA rules exist not only to stop such violations but also to hold non-compliant healthcare practitioners liable.
SEE ALSO: Preventing security breaches in healthcare
Regarding email communications, there are several ways to violate HIPAA accidentally. For example, a nurse may write an email and include PHI without a patient's permission. In another example, a nurse may write an email at their station and be disrupted by an emergency and walk away to attend to it. Walking away to take care of an emergency with an email that includes PHI open and visible is classified as an accidental disclosure and a reportable HIPAA violation.
However, there are also intentional violations, such as curiosity-driven disclosure. For example, when the news of someone well-known getting care is shared outside of actual patient care.
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Of course, the disclosure could be purposeful and sometimes even harmful.
Finally, there are breaches due to an organization not utilizing strong email security, which can lead to a cyberattack. In any of these incidences, using HIPAA compliant email would have helped.
Nurses always need to use a HIPAA compliant email solution when sending PHI.
The vast majority of nurses need a secure solution that is easy to use and does not add to their workload. For example, easily sending secure emails containing appointment reminders, treatment information, diagnosis or prescriptions can help create an efficient and smooth workflow.
LEARN ABOUT: Permitted use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA
And something that cannot be forgotten: nursing and healthcare is stressful and tiring. When work is long and hard, it is easy to overlook security measures that stop a breach from occurring. By using a secure email provider like Paubox, staff or provider errors are taken out of the equation.
READ MORE: Why cybersecurity education is key to protecting your medical practice
Paubox Email Suite takes healthcare emails seriously by providing nurses with an easy way to communicate securely with patients.
Our HITRUST-CSF certified solution is effortless and lets nurses focus on caring for patients without adding to the stress of digital communication barriers and HIPAA compliance regulations.
No additional passwords or portals are necessary, and there is no need to change your existing platform.
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Paubox Email Suite enables HIPAA compliant email by default and encrypts every outbound message automatically. And our Plus and Premium plans come equipped with innovative, proactive inbound tools like Zero Trust Email and ExecProtect.
There is no reason to hesitate. Let Paubox do the heavy lifting when it comes to HIPAA compliance and emailing your patients so you can focus on the important job of nursing.