When to seek legal consultation for HIPAA
Is it reasonable to think that a private medical practice with a total of 18 employees can meet all the requirements of HIPAA without hiring expensive outside consultants? At what point (if any) should we have legal consultation. Thank you!
Given the right tools, a fair amount of time and the budget to make it happen,
I certainly believe it is reasonable to accomplish this internally. Keep in
mind that not *all* outside consultants are expensive. You should be able to
find some in your area that can do the work for a reasonable fixed cost so you
don't have to worry about it getting out of control financially. Long term,
given employee training, books and other tools that you will end up needing to
purchase, not to mention pulling employees away from what they normally do on a
full-time basis, it could very well be cheaper to outsource. At a minimum, you
should consider getting legal counsel to review your HIPAA-mandated privacy and
security policies to ensure they are reasonable and enforceable.
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This was first published in December 2002
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