HIPAA Breach Notification Policy Template

The HIPAA Breach Notification Policy Template is a comprehensive way for your business to become compliant with the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This template provides guidance on the steps that need to be taken to comply with the law, allowing the entity to follow an efficient and up-to-date breach notification process. With this policy, personnel of any covered entity will have immediate access to knowledge on measures they must take in order to meet regulatory standards and maintain compliance.

The policy covers understanding and safeguarding various types of health information collected and maintained by a covered entity. Additionally, it ensures all members of its workforce understand their responsibilities related to complaint reporting and management. As part of provisions for staff competency, this template assists in promoting a culture of compliance and encourages personnel’s understanding regarding software changes that can affect data security measures. The policy succinctly outlines procedures needed for recognizing, responding, containing data breaches with respect to protected health information.

SAMPLE TEXT: ENTITY NAME has adopted this Breach Notification Policy in order to recognize the requirement to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act of 2009 (Title XIII of division A and Title IV of division B of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “ARRA”) and the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule (Effective Date: March 26, 2013). We acknowledge that full compliance with the HIPAA Final Rule is required by or before September 23, 2013.

ENTITY NAME hereby acknowledges our duty and responsibility to protect the privacy and security of Individually Identifiable Health Information (“IIHI”) generally, and Protected Health Information (“PHI”) as defined in the HIPAA Regulations, under the regulations implementing HIPAA, other federal and state laws protecting the confidentiality of personal information, and under principles of general and professional ethics. We also acknowledge our duty and responsibility to support and facilitate the timely and unimpeded flow of health information for lawful and appropriate purposes.

Each of our HIPAA templates are in Microsoft Word (.docx) format for easy editing. Each template is guaranteed to be fully HIPAA & HITECH compliant when properly implemented.