By Jack Anderson
August 13, 2013
I will restrain myself from making analogies to the ocengoing mammal balancing a ball on it’s nose but let’s face it a HIPAA seal is a ridiculous image in itself. We also help healthcare organizations get accredited so we understand the actual process of getting an authorized third party to do an on-site survey and if you pass you get a certificate good for three years that is accepted throughout healthcare. The key word here is “authorized”. Organizations such as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO have been legally authorized by CMS to do accreditation.
No third party has that authorization to certify HIPAA compliance. A good question for the seller of seals is; Does the seal guarantee my HIPAA compliance? or Will the auditor accept the seal as proof of compliance?
Meters on the other hand measure activities on an on-going basis. What percentage of your policies, procedures, and forms have been reviewed, editied, and approved today? What percentage of your assigned compliance tasks have been completed today? What is the history of your compliance? And of course the meters are only the surface layer, if you want to let someone drill down into your HIPAA compliance you can provide complete transparency. Compliance Helper helps organizations get compliant, stay compliant, and prove compliance with our Compliance Meter(tm). Accept no seals.
Here is the link to the HIPAA seal blog: http://blog.securestate.com/contemplating-a-hipaa-compliance-seal/#comment-376