{"id":2385,"date":"2013-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/"},"modified":"2013-04-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T00:00:00","slug":"how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensuring Business Associate Compliance: Are You Doing Your Due Diligence?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"internal-source-marker_0.7850329215582288\" dir=\"ltr\"><em>Business associates should be required to provide some type of evidence or proof of compliance to their covered entities.<\/em> &#8211; Healthcare Information Security Today: 2013 Outlook Survey<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This quote comes from a study that reports only 32 percent of survey respondents of a healthcare director\/manager of information technology demographic expressed confidence in the security controls maintained by their business associates &#8211; a dismal number considering the risk taken when partnering with a <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/compliance-security\/hipaa-compliant-cloud\/\">HIPAA cloud hosting<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/compliance-security\/hipaa-compliant-cloud\/\">HIPAA colocation<\/a> provider.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">When asked about what steps covered entities have taken to ensure business associates are HIPAA compliant, only 25 percent obtained a copy of their BA\u2019s security audit, and 12 percent commissioned a third-party validation of their policies and procedures. While the last figure is understandable as it requires an investment of time and money, there should be no excuse for not checking a security audit report (unless the business associate doesn\u2019t have one).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10743\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10743\" style=\"width: 545px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/business-associate-compliance\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10743\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10743 \" title=\"2013 Business Associate Compliance\" src=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Business-Associate-Compliance.png\" alt=\"2013 Business Associate Compliance\" width=\"545\" height=\"409\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10743\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 Business Associate Compliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Read more about compliance with hosting business associates in <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/compliance-security\/hipaa-compliant-cloud\/\">100% HIPAA Compliant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Thirty percent required business associates complete a security questionnaire, although the report doesn\u2019t provide much in terms of details. For a list of questions to ask your potential HIPAA hosting provider, read <em><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/reference\/five-questions-to-ask-your-hipaa-hosting-provider\/\">Five Questions to Ask Your HIPAA Hosting Provider<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The greatest percentage of respondents modified business associate agreements (BAAs) to provide more details, at 69 percent. What should the contractual terms look like? Briefly, BAs are required to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Implement safeguards to prevent misuse\/disclosure of health data<\/li>\n<li>Report PHI breaches<\/li>\n<li>Disclose PHI as requested by CEs for patient use, amendments and accountings<\/li>\n<li>At contract termination, return or destroy all PHI (protected health information) from the CE&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Find out what else is required in the new business associate agreements by reading <em><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/final-hipaa-omnibus-rule-business-associate-agreements-and-how-to-be-hipaa-compliant\/\">Final HIPAA Omnibus Rule: Business Associate Agreements &amp; Roadmap to Compliance<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The survey also features an interview with an independent consulting professional (CISSP, Certified Information Systems Security Professional) &#8211; as he acknowledges that approximately 20 percent of breaches are caused by business associates (most recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/hhs-wall-of-shame-40-percent-of-2013-hipaa-breaches-involve-business-associates\/\">40 percent of 2013 breaches<\/a>), he recommends using the HIPAA audit protocol as a guide for conducting a technical and non-technical evaluation of a business associate\u2019s safeguards and controls.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Find out more about business associates and HIPAA compliance in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinetech.com\/resources\/white-papers\/hipaa-compliant-data-centers\">HIPAA Compliant Hosting white paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>References:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthcareinfosecurity.com\/handbooks.php?hb_id=42\">Healthcare Information Security Today: 2013 Outlook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business associates should be required to provide some type of evidence or proof of compliance to their covered entities. &#8211; Healthcare Information Security Today: 2013 Outlook Survey This quote comes from a study that reports only 32 percent of survey respondents of a healthcare director\/manager of information technology demographic expressed confidence in the security controls maintained by their business associates &#8211; a dismal number considering the risk taken when partnering with a HIPAA cloud hosting or HIPAA colocation provider. When asked about what steps covered entities have taken to ensure business associates are HIPAA compliant, only 25 percent obtained a copy of their BA\u2019s security audit, and 12 percent commissioned a third-party validation of their policies and procedures. While the last figure is understandable as it requires an investment of time and money, there should be no excuse for not checking a security audit report (unless the business associate doesn\u2019t have one). Read more about compliance with hosting business associates in 100% HIPAA Compliant. Thirty percent required business associates complete a security questionnaire, although the report doesn\u2019t provide much in terms of details. For a list of questions to ask your potential HIPAA hosting provider, read Five Questions to Ask&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"other_category":[],"class_list":["post-2385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ensuring Business Associate Compliance: Are You Doing Your Due Diligence? | OTAVA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When asked steps entities taken to ensure HIPAA compliance, only 25% obtained a copy of their BA\u2019s security audit and 12% commissioned 3rd party validation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ensuring Business Associate Compliance: Are You Doing Your Due Diligence?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When asked steps entities taken to ensure HIPAA compliance, only 25% obtained a copy of their BA\u2019s security audit and 12% commissioned 3rd party validation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OTAVA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-11T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Business-Associate-Compliance.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Irma Brillantes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263\"},\"headline\":\"Ensuring Business Associate Compliance: Are You Doing Your Due Diligence?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-11T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Business-Associate-Compliance.png\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-business-associates-are-hipaa-compliant\/\",\"name\":\"Ensuring Business Associate Compliance: Are You Doing Your Due Diligence? 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