Time Shred Services offers HIPAA compliant document shredding services throughout New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Our experienced staff is ready to assist you by explaining and answer all of your questions about our HIPAA compliant document shredding services. You can choose a one-time shredding service or for a recurring shredding need you can choose our scheduled shredding service. After you choose the HIPAA shredding service that is best for you we can give you a quote and schedule your HIPAA shredding service during the same telephone call. Time Shred makes HIPAA Shredding that simple.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) states that healthcare providers, also known as covered entities, cannot dispose of Protected Health Information (PHI) in paper record form, labeled prescription bottles, hospital identification bracelets, or other forms of PHI in refuse containers that are accessible to the public or other unauthorized persons. The method of disposal must render the medical records essentially unreadable, indecipherable, and otherwise cannot be reconstructed. That means they should be shredded. Shredding documents and records that contain PHI is the best way of meeting the HIPAA requirements and ensuring that patient privacy is protected when medical records are no longer needed.
Even if you are selling, merging, or closing your practice you are not allowed to just abandon medical records or dispose of them in dumpsters or other containers that are accessible to the public or other unauthorized persons without shredding them first.
HIPAA also requires companies or individuals who assist healthcare providers, known as business associates to comply with the HIPAA regulations and safeguards. A business associate is any individual or company, other than an employee or representative of a covered entity’s workforce, that performs certain tasks or services on behalf of or provides certain services to, a covered entity.
HIPAA fines have been increased and can reach $1.5 million dollars per violation or breach. These penalties can apply to healthcare providers as well as individuals and business associates. Don’t take chances and protect the PHI you are entrusted with, shred all medical documents when they are ready to be disposed of.
HIPAA has a due diligence clause that requires you to vet the company you are having destroy protected health information. It’s a required part of a complete HIPAA Risk Analysis. Failure to do so will greatly increase your penalties if OCR investigates. Instead of going through a long due diligence process, you can hire a company that has been certified by a national trade organization. In the shredding industry, there is only one, The National Association of Information Destruction (NAID). Time Shred Services is a NAID AAA certified company which means we exceed the highest standards for professionalism and security in the information destruction industry. Hiring a NAID AAA certified company makes you compliant with the due diligence requirement.
To be HIPAA compliant call Time Shred Services Today!