Working in healthcare can be challenging for several reasons, but even more so when you’re not adequately trained on the various aspects of your job. When you’re heavily focused on training in the more technical aspects of your career, healthcare compliance and cybersecurity are often overlooked.

 Healthcare compliance and cybersecurity training are as essential to patient safety as clinical training. They ensure patient and employee safety through standardized processes.

Critical Topics in Healthcare Compliance

Healthcare compliance is a broad term covering various regulatory areas, including HIPAA, OSHA, and FWA. Each of these regulations requires healthcare organizations and their employees to meet a set of standards that are best adhered to through training and education.

 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires organizations to follow policies and procedures to ensure the privacy and security of patient protected health information (PHI). When a breach or incident compromises PHI privacy or security, it must be reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and affected individuals. Employees not trained in HIPAA compliance put the organization they work for and its patients at risk.

 The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) sets standards for safe and healthy work environments. OSHA standards cover a broad set of topics as they apply to most industries, but there are topics that are particularly relevant in healthcare. OSHA training in healthcare may include how to properly use personal protective equipment (PPE), safe X-raying procedures, bloodborne pathogens, injury and illness reporting, and several others.

 Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (FWA) training is relevant in organizations that work with Medicare and Medicaid patients. Healthcare organizations that improperly bill for services can face severe consequences, but FWA cases can also result from a lack of understanding of the rules and regulations. FWA cases cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, so the government has been focusing on finding these fraudsters.

The Role of Cybersecurity Training in Healthcare

Cybersecurity training is vital for any business. According to a study conducted by IBM, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error – this can be anything from clicking on a phishing email to failing to use a strong password. What this boils down to is that employee education is your best defense against threat actors.

Cybersecurity training should include topics such as identifying a phishing incident, using a strong password, and reporting a cybersecurity incident, among others.

Contributed by Compliancy Group

Compliancy Group’s comprehensive training educates employees on regulatory compliance and cybersecurity best practices. Course material was designed to ensure individuals are actively engaged and empowered to protect patients and their organizations. With access to 90+ courses, various aspects of compliance and cybersecurity are covered, including HIPAA, OSHA, FWA, Cyber Safety, and Clinical.

 In addition to training, Compliancy Group’s software offers a robust compliance toolset, advanced program customization options, and risk analysis to optimize the execution of ongoing compliance objectives. Get an overview of your compliance readiness and quickly generate reports to prove your compliance efforts. Expedite incident reporting and response management, record all the efforts, and identify organizational risk with a complete set of ticketing, tracking, and analysis tools.