Unfortunately...sm
Posted By: TechSupport on 2009-03-06
In Reply to: HIPAA laws being broken. - sm
...no provisions of HIPAA are being broken by sending the work offshore.
It's very important to understand that HIPAA does not apply directly to any transcription vendor or other business partner of a covered entity under HIPAA. The burden of compliance falls entirely on the covered entity, and even that isn't much of a burden where business associates are concerned. HIPAA does not even require covered entities to monitor their business associates nor the means by which they secure information, nor does it require the covered entity to report a breach of privacy by a business associate.
Smart caregivers will, of course, include their own terms of compliance in their contracts with business associates, and should monitor them, but there is no "pass-through" of either the HIPAA privacy and security requirements or civil or criminal liabilities under HIPAA itself to the business partners of a covered entity.
Of course, state privacy laws might impose liabilities that HIPAA does not, but under the provisions of HIPAA there is no enforcement with respect to business partners and the only "weapon" in a covered entity's arsenal is an action for breach of contract.
Now, if some sharpie out there were to say, "Then what does it mean for all these companies to run around saying they're 'HIPAA compliant'?...the answer is "nothing"!! Or, putting it another way, it only means that the company complies with whatever terms a covered entity might or might not have included in its contract. There is no uniform meaning to the phrase "HIPAA Compliant" so that you could say, for instance, "Okay...they use encryption...they wipe their hard drives when replaced...they use this technology or that technology." Nope. It's just a relatively meaningless catch phrase. Feel free to use it yourself if you like!
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