Compliancy Group made an announcement regarding the new appointment of an experienced healthcare lawyer and legal researcher to the task of helping simplify the complicated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements. The goal is to make the rules easy to understand for the company’s customers and the public.
Daniel Lebovic who graduated from Emory University School of Law is going to join the Content Management Team of Compliancy Group. Lebovic’s background in healthcare law, as well as his experience in translating legal documents to written content, will be helpful to people without a legal background to easily understand the information.
The healthcare industry has changed a lot since the HIPAA was signed into law 20 years ago. Making sure of sustained compliance with HIPAA while work conditions change and new technology develop is a big task. It requires a comprehensive knowledge of the ins and outs of HIPAA.
HIPAA is made up of a set of requirements for different sizes of healthcare organizations, including single-doctor practices, large health systems, and health insurers. However, it doesn’t point out how to meet those requirements because they are unclear in many cases.
For instance, the HIPAA Security Rule demands that covered entities should maintain “reasonable and appropriate” technical, administrative and physical safeguards to keep ePHI protected. Risk should be minimized to a “reasonable and appropriate” level. How do you decide what is “reasonable and appropriate?” Sadly, the effects of a wrong judgment could be serious.
Hopefully, Lebovic’s expertise will help a lot here. Lebovic’s task is to create educational material for healthcare organizations that takes away the difficulties of HIPAA and makes it easy and clear for healthcare organizations to comply.
The HIPAA is not easily understandable to the average person. With Lebovic’s new role, it is hoped that the regulations will be turned into actionable advice that helps the healthcare industry to understand and follow the HIPAA.