Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Use HHS template to make your job easier.

If you’re like most labs and find keeping tabs on your business associates (BAs) to be one of the most daunting tasks for HIPAA compliance, we have good news for you.

HIPAA Audit Requires BA Records

Because you must ensure that your BAs also maintain appropriate privacy practices as part of the HIPAA audit protocol, many practices have cried foul for being held accountable for other entities. The HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has heard practices’ concerns, and issued a sample template to help you keep track of your BAs.

“Covered entities should provide the requested information to the best of their knowledge and include the name and types of services provided by each business associate,” the OCR says on its website. “Covered entities responding to the request should identify each element for each business associate.”

The elements listed on the template include the BA’s name, the type of service they provide, two points of contact (as well as their titles, addresses, fax and phone numbers, and emails), and the BA’s web URL.

To read HHS’s template so you can design your own BA tracker around it, visit the HHS website at www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/audit/batemplate/index.html.