Remote work involving PHI is here to stay – at least for a while

The Covid-19 Public Health Emergency has ended. But one effect of the pandemic remains – some covered entity and business associate staff continue to work at home or other remote locations where their duties involve receiving, creating, maintaining, and transmitting protected health information (PHI).

HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates, suddenly forced by the pandemic to have staff work from home, discovered that costs could be reduced when staff worked remotely instead of coming in daily. The pandemic also forced organizations to make up protocols to protect PHI at remote locations virtually overnight with little time to train or properly equip workforce members. Consequently, new, previously unconsidered HIPAA breach risks plagued staff trying to do their job in new settings and protect the privacy and security of the PHI they were working with.

Surveys indicate that remote work will continue although the pandemic public health emergency has officially ended. And privacy and security protections for PHI at remote locations are still in progress for many organizations. This webinar draws on remote work lessons learned during the pandemic to provide HIPAA compliance guidance for Covered Entities and Business Associates that continue with workforce members working remotely at least part of the time.

• The New Normal in HealthcareRemote Work
• Hybrid – Remote and Office Workplaces

Attend this webinar to see how your remote work PHI safeguards measure up to hard-learned best practices during the pandemic. Cyber-criminal attacks on the healthcare industry increased dramatically during the pandemic. PHI in remote workplaces is a low-hanging fruit for criminals. Even more worrisome is that unsecured remote workplaces offer criminals a back door to the parent organization and its affiliates. Remote work is not going away. Make it a priority to protect PHI maintained, transmitted, created, and received by staff at remote workplaces.