By: Jackie Bain

On Friday, March 28, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services introduced a HIPAA Risk Assessment Tool to aid providers with HIPAA compliance.

HIPAA is a federal law designed to limit disclosure of patient’s protected health information to only those circumstances where disclosure is necessary.  In furtherance of that goal, HIPAA requires organizations, including group practices, to regularly review their own physical, technical and administrative processes to ensure the safety of patient’s protected health information.

The HIPAA Risk Assessment Tool is intended to help group practices come into compliance with the law.  HHS’ press release states that the Tool will “help practices conduct and document a risk assessment in a thorough, organized fashion at their own pace by allowing them to assess the information security risks in their organizations.”

The HIPAA Risk Assessment Tool can be found here:  http://www.healthit.gov/security-risk-assessment.