You have a new employee, but your annual HIPAA training isn’t for a few months. Can you wait until then?
You shouldn’t. Not only is that employee more likely to do something that violates your policies for HIPAA and Security, but OCR expects HIPAA Training as part of on boarding your new employee.
In fact, earlier this year in April, The Center for Children’s Digestive Health (CCDH), was fined 31,000, mostly for not having a valid Business Associate Agreement with a vendor, but also for not training employees frequently. HIPAA language states that employee training should be done “periodically”. This can lead to a loose interpretation as to what “periodically” actually means. Once per year? Once per month? At every staff meeting? In the Resolution Agreement for CCDH, OCR required “that each new CCDH workforce member with access to PHI will receive such training within fifteen (15) days of beginning work at CCDH”. This should be considered the new expectation and standard for training timeframes.
For those that have ACS HIPAA Services, we offer two New Employee Trainings each month, during the day and after hours as well as Make-Up Trainings for employees that miss the annual, in-office training. Click here to sign up for one.
