Physicians and office staff understand that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is federal law. It was designed to provide privacy standards to protect patients’ medical records and other health information. Nevertheless, many fail to recognize that they are not in compliance with federal privacy laws enacted since HIPAA. With an increase in the number of audits conducted for HIPAA compliance and larger penalty amounts, failing to comply with federal privacy laws is not something you can afford to do.
Most HIPAA violations are due to human error. For this reason, the most critical thing you can do is start by training all new employees and conduct annual staff training. Every physician and practice must ensure that all staff members understand the importance of patient privacy and the seriousness and potential penalties of even one violation. This training should demonstrate an awareness of and a commitment to HIPAA compliance.
TMHCC CyberNet® has created online courses free for members of the Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc., covering the basics of privacy/data security for individuals who handle sensitive information.
Please follow these simple instructions to access your online training. Upon completion of a course, a certificate is automatically generated that can be printed or saved. This can be used to prove compliance.
1. Start by going to: https://cap.nascybernet.com/
2. First time users will need to create an account before they can access the training materials.
3. First time users will need to use their CAP member number as the "Sign Up Code.” Once registered, you will be able to create a username and password. The CAP member number is not the same as the CAP entity ID. For assistance obtaining your member number, please call: 888-645-7237.
4. Sign in to your account using an email address and password you created.
5. Click on the Training & News tab.
6. Under cyber training, click on Training Courses to access the training material.
7. Scroll Down to Healthcare Training Series on the bottom left.
7. Click on each HIPAA Healthcare Training Series “Privacy Basics” training series to begin.
