Ensuring that medical and dental records are destroyed properly is vital to ensuring your identify is kept confidential. Protected Health Information (PHI) is the classification which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given to personal patient information for which unauthorized release is now a criminal offense. PHI includes diagnosis, prescription billing information, medical history, notes, x-rays, phone messages, and several other relevant pieces of information.
Institutions that must comply with HIPAA are called covered entities. Covered entities include any and all organizations or individuals who retain or collect health related information. This includes larger institutions such as hospitals, medical centers and insurance. There are also small covered entities such as dentists, doctors, counselors, billing centers and many others. Technically, every employer in the United States with completed health insurance applications or injury reports on file is considered a small covered entity under HIPAA.
Destroying ALL discarded patient information is a VERY important requirement of HIPAA. This also includes information on computers. Deleting information does not erase it. It must be destroyed.
No office is too small to benefit from using a shredding firm. A SECURE SHREDDING FIRM is very inexpensive insurance.
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