New Round of HIPAA Compliance Audits Underway

"An entity that does not respond to OCR may still be selected for an audit or subject to a compliance review."

Doctors of optometry may be selected for a new round of compliance audits under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). According to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), US Department of Health and Human Services, Phase 2 of its HIPAA audits is underway.

Members should check their email inboxes—including their spam folders—for messages from the OCR seeking their contact information. After OCR receives responses to this initial email, it will send a "pre-audit questionnaire," asking respondents about their organization's size, type and operations. Based on the questionnaires' results, OCR will create a pool of potential candidates to be randomly selected for audits. This pool will represent a wide range of entities covered by HIPAA's Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules." 

Ignoring the requests won't get you out of an audit. Responses are expected in a timely manner.

It is recommended that members be prepared in case they are audited. Click here to read more about these Phase 2 audits and how to prepare. Learn about member-exclusive resources from AOAExcel® to help in achieving HIPAA compliance.