HIPAA Emergency Mode Operations Policy Template

Establishing policies to ensure the continuity and security of protected health information is an essential part of any HIPAA compliant organization. The HIPAA Emergency Mode Operations Policy Template provides businesses with comprehensive guidance on how to protect ePHI during times of crisis and allows organizations to quickly respond should an emergency situation arise.

Essential concepts for protecting ePHI in an emergency are covered throughout the template. These include: identifying critical business processes, developing contingency plans and strategies with cloud backups, utilizing secure remote access protocols, creating policies around communication and data internal control measures, and providing training programs so that all staff are informed on effective responses.

SAMPLE TEXT: ENTITY NAME has adopted this Emergency Mode Operations 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.