Why Is HIPAA Vital to Medical Waste Services?
HIPAA is a term that is thrown around in the healthcare and medical industries, but not everyone knows what it is or why it’s important. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Congress passed this legislation in 1996, and it mainly deals with measures and protocols to protect private and sensitive patient PII (personally identifiable information) or PHI (protected health information). This is why HIPAA is vital to medical waste services. PII and PHI can include general information, such as name, date of birth, and social security number, but it also includes medically related information, such as any conditions you have, treatments you’ve undergone, and so on. The law and various regulations dictate many facets of privacy in the medical field, and mandatory HIPAA compliance is a large piece of that.
Make the Connection
You may know what HIPAA is, but do you understand how it connects with OSHA? OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and this agency dictates numerous laws and regulations that relate to overall safety and health within the workplace. OSHA mandates that certain trainings are conducted by those in the medical industry, and HIPAA falls under that umbrella. If you work in a medical facility and come in contact with PHI at any point, you will have to undergo some OSHA training along with being fully compliant with HIPAA.
Medical Waste and HIPAA Violations
Most medical professionals understand that their patients and their services need to be protected and HIPAA compliant, but sadly, too many in the medical industry don’t consider medical waste to fall under that category. The term ‘medical waste’ covers a lot of ground, but both HIPAA and OSHA require that your medical waste is disposed of properly, or your facility may be looking at some enormous fines and loss of reputation in the medical community. Everyone is talking about safety these days, and that includes your patients and whatever waste they produce.
Whether it’s RMW (Regulated Medical Waste) or document shredding/destruction, both need to be handled carefully and compliantly because both have components of PHI attached to them. Having a proper document shredding protocol is essential for any business, but especially for any medical facility. Every piece of paper that has any patient information on it—even if it’s just a name or another seemingly insignificant identifier—needs to be kept under lock and key and then properly shredded and destroyed, typically by a professional destruction company. RMW should be handled the same way – left to the professionals. Sharps, X-rays, pathology information, pharmaceuticals, any kind of trace chemotherapy or drug residue, infectious waste…all of it needs to be properly handled, stored, packaged and destroyed following every HIPAA and OSHA mandate. If your facility isn’t already doing this, it’s time to make some major changes.
Do Violations Really Matter?
In short, the answer is a definite yes. First and foremost, HIPAA is in place to protect privacy – your privacy, the privacy of your patients and your staff, all to ensure their complete safety. If their PHI was stolen or revealed due to your negligence, you have compromised the integrity of your facility and the safety of one (or all) of your patients. Additionally, you are looking at potentially devastating financial ramifications.
- Patients will be less likely to trust you and your ability to keep their information safe, meaning your patient numbers will go down, and so will the amount of money your facility brings in.
- If you underwent an OSHA audit and were found to be noncompliant, you could be subject to any number of OSHA fines.
- The patient whose information was compromised could take legal action against your facility in the way of expensive lawsuits.
Do You Need Help?
As a medical facility, your employees are required to go through proper HIPAA and OSHA training. Because of the sheer number of required trainings and the different requirements for those trainings, it can quickly become confusing and complicated to manage. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or want to make absolutely sure you’re on top of the right requirements, you can always seek out the help of medical waste management companies. They have the sources to support your facility in your efforts toward compliance, and if you work with a reputable organization, they should be able to advise you regarding any compliance issues you may have.
If you’re in the greater Huntsville or Birmingham, AL areas, you have many destruction companies to choose from, but let us at SecureMed and Secure Destruction handle all of your needs. We have both shredding and medical waste destruction specialists who can assess your facility and determine what the best plan of action may be. Contact us today!
