The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance

Description

Following in the footsteps of its bestselling predecessor, The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance, Second Edition is a one-stop, up-to-date resource on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security, including details on the HITECH Act, the 2013 Omnibus Rule, and the pending rules. Updated and revised with several new sections, this edition defines what HIPAA is, what it requires, and what you need to do to achieve compliance. The book provides an easy-to-understand overview of HIPAA privacy and security rules and compliance tasks. Supplying authoritative insights into real-world HIPAA privacy and security issues, it summarizes the analysis, training, and technology needed to properly plan and implement privacy and security policies, training, and an overall program to manage information risks. Instead of focusing on technical jargon, the book spells out what your organization must do to achieve and maintain compliance requirements on an ongoing basis. Review: Great book - GREAT resource. Very detailed. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is useful as both reading cover to cover and as a reference. It also links you to external sources of information, such as NIST publications on risk assessment, privacy blogs, ect. I think it is interesting how the two authors cowrote this book. Herold handles the privacy half and Beaver handles the security. They have very distinct writing styles. The privacy section is more perspective (compliance based -- do this, do that, have a business associate agreement, have a notice of privacy practices with this and that in it, document PHI disclosures, , ect....) whereas the security section is vaguer (reflecting HIPAA's risk based approach). It is worth noting that just because you read this book doesn't mean that you are qualified to do this in the real world -- this book won't make you an information security expert, capable of doing detailed risk analyses. Rather think of this book as one that will take an Infosec/Laywer/provider/ect and make them competent with HIPAA. My only qualm is that the binding seems to be coming loose. That might be in part due to the fact that I open it so much, however most books don't physically deteriorate that rapidly. Not the fault of the authors, rather the publisher. Review: THE BEST GUIDE FOR A THIRD OF THE PRICE OF OTHERS LESS HELPFUL - A tough subject to unravel, this HIPAA law, but Herold did it, and with clarity. I've been in the medical field for over 30 years, and this book gave concise, direct insights I have not found in other manuals/training guides. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would drop $200-300 on books/manuals/guides that are cumbersome, wordy and unnecessarily bloated when they can have THIS guide. The most important thing I learned from this guide is: GONE are the days that a medical business can just use some type of pre-formed template to simply fill in blanks. HIPAA notices now have to be tailored-worded, exquisite specific to each individual medical practice, and in regards to its business, its services, etc. With explicit examples and directions from which to model, I was able to draft one specific for our practice. It was a 2-day work in progress, but once it was finished, I felt proud we could show our own personalized HIPAA guide to our patients.