What are the Different Types of HIPAA Compliance Training?

Different kinds of HIPAA compliance training help medical businesses to be secure in their compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This set of laws deals chiefly with patient data privacy, and it affects the operation of hospitals and other health care facilities in many ways. Various kinds of HIPAA compliance training address different aspects of this overall medical legislation.

One way to differentiate types of HIPAA compliance training is between “professional HIPAA training,” and other kinds of training that could be called “facilities HIPAA training” or “general” HIPAA training. The first type of training deals with specific core objectives of medical professionals in their individual efforts at HIPAA compliance. For example, doctors and nurses, who are the chief caregivers, have unique access to patient data, but so do the medical clerks and administrators who primarily handle documents containing this delicate information. Professional HIPAA training would focus on the specific roles of these different front-line staffers.

More general HIPAA training is often part of what’s provided by overall HIPAA consulting company to pledge to make a facility “100% HIPAA compliant.” This extends to training anyone who works in a facility, including housekeeping or laundry staff, or individuals in other various departments that are only peripheral to the patient data that is kept in the facility. Another type of HIPAA compliance training is aimed at the people who actually construct or modify parts of the facility in order to accommodate HIPAA.

Other types of HIPAA compliance training vary by format. HIPAA training companies may offer courses online, through webinars or in-house seminars, or at specific classroom locations. HIPAA training may differ by timeline, course content, possible certifications, staff levels included, or other factors. All of these HIPAA training programs serve the same goals, but in radically different ways.

Yet another type of popular HIPAA training revolves around the actual documents containing the patient information. From record creation to archiving, this kind of critical HIPAA training gives facilities the ability to handle records well, something that is key for overall compliance. This kind of training can include rules on digital documents, lock and key strategies for physical archives, archive transport, server security, and much more.

Another type of HIPAA compliance training, often called “legal HIPAA training” relates to the eventuality of a facility being called out on compliance violations. This kind of instruction could involve legal personnel, human resources staff, or others who might be in leadership positions associated with potential legal challenges. Legal training for HIPAA includes specific curriculum on how to respond to legal issues and/or prevent them.