If your company manages protected health information (PHI), can you remember the nature of your HIPAA compliance training?
Many people find that training consists of watching a dull slideshow presentation. Because a single moment of forgetfulness could result in a $25,000 fine for violating HIPAA, it is important to teach HIPAA compliance in a way that students will remember.
Fortunately, that answer is provided by entertaining HIPAA training games.
To find out how to align your staff with HIPAA compliance, continue reading.
Who is required to follow HIPAA?
According to HIPAA, confidentiality of a person’s medical information is the responsibility of any organization handling that information.
All covered organizations (healthcare clearinghouses, health plans, and providers) and their business partners are included in this.
What is HIPAA training so crucial?
Employee education on HIPAA best practices and regulations is essential for compliance.
Should the Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determine that businesses have not sufficiently trained their staff on HIPAA best practices, they may face fines of up to $1.5 million for a HIPAA violation.
Apart from the fact that compliance training is mandated by law, it is also a wise financial move. According to compliance data, companies spend $5.47 million on compliance whereas they spend an average of $14.82 million on non-compliance.
Because of the high risks involved in HIPAA compliance, memorable training is essential. These are the main points that should be covered in HIPAA training.
HIPAA training: What is it?
All staff members who handle, store, access, or share PHI should be trained on the main HIPAA regulations. We will go into more depth about the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules below.
During their onboarding process and on a regular basis, employees should be instructed on how to adhere to the company’s privacy and security standards.
According to the HIPAA Security Rule, this kind of staff training is an administrative safeguard. To comply with HIPAA, healthcare businesses must have physical and technical precautions in place to protect patient data from breaches, as well as some administrative measures, such as employee training.
Overview: HIPAA regulations
The purpose of HIPAA’s 1996 enactment was to increase the efficacy and efficiency of the US healthcare system. Lawmakers quickly realized that in order to safeguard people’s health information, electronic technology needed to be protected with contemporary measures.
The Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules are now part of HIPAA.
Here is a brief synopsis of each rule.
The Privacy Act
The Privacy Rule lays out guidelines for safeguarding PHI and medical records of persons. Any organization that handles a person’s health information must limit who can view and obtain PHI and offer appropriate safeguards.
PHI may only be used or disclosed by organizations for treatment, payment, or health care operations purposes, according to the restrictions set forth in this regulation.
Additionally, the rule grants people the ability to authorize third-party transfers of their PHI and to acquire copies of their medical information.
The Security Rule
In order to protect electronic PHI (ePHI), companies must implement administrative, technological, and physical protections in accordance with the Security Rule.
Actually, they have to:
- Perform risk assessments to find and stop external or internal threats to ePHI.
- Guard against unauthorized ePHI disclosures or usage.
- Verify that employees are adhering to security and privacy regulations.
Rule of Breach Notification
Within 60 days of learning of an unsecured PHI breach, HIPAA-covered companies are required by the Breach Notification Rule to notify any impacted parties.
Organizations must additionally inform the OCR in their state during the same 60-day period if the incident involves more than 500 individuals.
Use the HIPAA training games below to assist members of your organization in adhering to these regulations.
5 enjoyable games for HIPAA training
One of the biggest responsibilities is managing and safeguarding health information. Employees must be able to recognize HIPAA violations and know what to do in the event that they happen, and the training must be retained long after it is finished.
When combined with conventional training, enjoyable confidentiality exercises can improve retention of information.
For an unforgettable team activity, try these HIPAA games.
First Game: In any case, whose HIPAA fine is it?
In an entertaining fashion, role-playing can instruct staff members on how to spot instances of HIPAA violations.
Try playing this game, which was influenced by the humorous improvisation show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” for a little HIPAA humor:
- Assign a few volunteers.
- Give the training group a HIPAA scenario to act out. Add a possible infraction, like this: “You shared a screenshot of a celebrity’s medical records on Twitter.”
- Give the group an opportunity to implement the possible remedies after that. For instance, “We must notify the impacted person.”
After the show, question the group:
- Which HIPAA regulations were disregarded?
- What penalties might apply
Game 2: Comply with the HIPAA Regulation
There are a number of standards in every HIPAA regulation. For instance, the Minimum Necessary requirement in the Privacy Rule mandates that covered entities utilize the least amount of PHI necessary to complete a specific treatment, payment, or health care operation duty.
Your team will have to match the standard cards with their definitions in this memory-like game.
- Put the HIPAA guidelines on each card. Put “Standard” on the back of every card.
- Each standard’s definition should be written on a different card. Put the word “Definition” on the back of every card.
- Create two teams out of your training group.
- Deal each side an equal number of standards and associated definition cards, face down, after shuffling the cards.
- One definition card and one normal card are dealt to each player.
- Team members will alternately attempt to match a standard card with the appropriate definition card in order to score a point.
- If someone matches the cards incorrectly, their turn is over and they have to turn the cards over again.
- The team with 10 points first wins.
Game Three: HIPAA Family Feud
Including elements of a competitive game show in your training should also assist maintain staff engagement.
Here’s an entertaining method to assess your staff members’ HIPAA knowledge:
- Make two teams out of the group.
- Pose a HIPAA-related trivia question.
- Allow time for each group to discuss the right response. “When was HIPAA enacted?” is one example.
- For a chance to receive a point reward, have each team write down their response.
- They receive a point if they are correct, but if they are incorrect, the other side has an opportunity to steal the point by providing a correct response.
- The team with the highest point total wins.
Game 4: Jeopardy with HIPAA!
An entertaining game reminiscent of Jeopardy! would be a must for any HIPAA training session.
First, in a slideshow presentation, enumerate the six distinct HIPAA-related categories as follows:
Answering the questions with lower values should be the simplest. The most valuable questions ought to be the most challenging.
- Assign your staff to groups and let them choose the questions.
- Make the question visible after they have decided on a category and value.
- The question will then be answered by the team that raises its hands first. If they are right, they receive the value that corresponds to the question. If it’s wrong, the team loses the point.
- The final winner is the squad with the most “money.”
Game 5: Is It True or False to Believe in HIPAA?
Some real-life instances of HIPAA violations seem too unbelievable to be real. This training game, which was inspired by the television program “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?”, assesses your team’s understanding of HIPAA history.
Although you shouldn’t expect students to be familiar with every HIPAA case in history, this is an entertaining way to teach about HIPAA violations and their consequences.
- Get a few instances of catastrophic HIPAA violations ready beforehand. Make up some and choose some based on actual occurrences, the more catastrophic the better.
- Present each example to your training group. Details about the incident, the HIPAA infractions, and the sanctions should be included in every case.
- After every instance, ask the group members to cast their votes to determine if the case is genuine or fake.
- Divide the group into factual and fictional instances, then test who could estimate the most accurate replies.
These entertaining HIPAA training activities should assist your staff in avoiding frequent office infractions when paired with more conventional training. To maintain your team’s sharpness, be sure to do these training sessions once a year.
