Regardless of the type or size of your EMS organization or Mobile Integrated Healthcare agency, HIPAA will pose challenges. PWW can help you perform your required HIPAA risk assessment, implement proper privacy and security policies and procedures, train your workforce, and properly report breaches of patient information when they occur.  

Some of our HIPAA, Privacy and Security related professional services include:

Complete HIPAA Compliance Assessments

The PWW Team conducts comprehensive assessments of organizations’ HIPAA compliance practices and offers practical and effective solutions to address identified compliance gaps. 

The HIPAA compliance assessment can be tailored to your agency, and can include the following services:

• An in-depth on-site HIPAA compliance assessment
• A complete review of your HIPAA policies, forms and procedures
• A risk analysis of your security environment
• New HIPAA polices and forms, personalized for your agency
• A baseline assessment of your agency’s compliance with the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules
• A complete gap analysis that identifies deficiencies in your HIPAA compliance
• A comprehensive written report on your HIPAA compliance, complete with solutions and recommended best practices
• HIPAA training solutions (either by PWW on-site or another method)

Contact us for pricing and to find out what we can provide to meet your needs.

HIPAA Compliance Plan Development and Updating

At a minimum, covered entities and business associates must have certain policies, forms and procedures in place to be compliant with the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.  PWW offers several options for agencies to bring their HIPAA Compliance Plans up to the current rigorous standards brought about by the recent HITECH Act.  They are:

• PWW’s Ambulance Service Guide to HIPAA Compliance.  This Guide has the mandatory HIPAA policies and forms that your agency needs, and the “Formfill” feature automatically generates them for your service!  This is a great tool for organizations looking to update existing HIPAA policies and forms, or organizations that have never taken a systematic approach to developing a HIPAA Compliance Plan.  This option will require some customization, and we recommend a final legal review of your generated policies and forms before implementation.  Click HERE to learn more.

• PWW-Developed HIPAA Compliance Plan.  For those who want a more customized HIPAA Compliance Plan that has been fully reviewed by a legal expert, consider having PWW develop your HIPAA Compliance Plan.  Whether you already have a Compliance Plan in place, you are starting from square one, or you’re somewhere in-between, PWW can develop a complete package to meet your agency’s needs.  We will integrate any of your existing policies, forms and procedures so that you have an up-to-date Compliance Plan with minimal effort on your part. 

We can also develop or review individual policies, forms and procedures for your agency, such as a breach notification policy or a new notice of privacy practices. 

HIPAA Consulting Services

Have a HIPAA privacy, security or breach issue that you need help navigating? PWW provides legal counsel to EMS agencies on matters such as:

• Requests for Protected Health Information.  Whether it’s law enforcement, another healthcare provider, patients, representatives, attorneys or others, we can help you deal with requests for your protected health information (PHI).
• HIPAA Breaches.  All covered entities and business associates have a duty to notify patients, the government, and potentially the media about breaches of unsecured PHI.  We can help you determine whether a breach has occurred, who you have to notify (and when), and even assist your organization in drafting a proper breach notification.
• HIPAA in the Digital Age.  If you have questions about using mobile or other electronic devices, certain communication channels to transmit PHI, networks and other hardware and software, we can provide advice.
• Sharing Protected Health Information.  It’s difficult to know with whom you can share PHI.  PWW can tell you exactly when you can share PHI and for what reasons.
• Business Associate Agreements.  Every covered entity needs to have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place with any third party with whom they share PHI.  If you have questions about who your business associates are, need us to review a BAA for you, or need a BAA that protects your agency and complies with HIPAA, PWW can serve your needs.

Contact PWW about engaging us to assist your agency with these, or any other HIPAA issues you might be dealing with.

HIPAA Training

Every member of your workforce, including employees and volunteers, need to be properly trained on HIPAA as soon as they join your organization.  HIPAA training needs to be specifically tailored to your environment and the types of PHI that your agency deals with.  PWW offers three options for HIPAA training:

• “HIPAA TV” Training Online.  Offered through CentreLearn, PWW’s online HIPAA training allows your personnel to take the program anytime, anywhere, and to complete the training at their own pace.  Click HERE for more details.
• ​“HIPAA TV” Training DVD.  Purchase our HIPAA training DVD and you can bring all of your new and existing personnel up-to-date on the new HIPAA regulations.  Click HERE to read more.
• PWW On-Site HIPAA Training.  Sometimes there’s no substitute for live training.  PWW can provide on-site training for everyone at your organization through an engaging, knowledgeable instructor.  On-site HIPAA training offers the added benefit of live question and answer sessions, and it allows you to tell us what issues you would like us to concentrate on. 

Contact us for pricing and to learn more.