Question

You are creating a steering committee of key individuals who are responsible for ongoing HIPAA privacy compliance. Who will lead this committee and who will be the members of the committee? Why did you select these individuals?

As the privacy officer for a covered entity, you are aware that protected health information has been accessed by an unauthorized individual. What type of analysis will you conduct to determine whether it constitutes a “breach” under HIPAA?

Answer 1

The members of the steering committee are chief compliance officer, HIPPA privacy officer, security officer, HIPPA program officer and IT professionals. They are included in the committee because they will have the knowledge regarding the HIPPA security program and can compare it with the compliances.
Breach is defined as the unauthorised access, use or disclosure of protected health information that compromises the security or privacy of information. The analysis should include nature and extend of the patient health information, the person who gained unauthorized access to patient health information, whether it was actually viewed and the extend to which the risk has been mitigated. This is the risk analysis to determine if it is breach under HIPPA.