Teletherapy: Legally Protect Your Students and Yourself

Only a few more weeks (days) of summer vacation left! Time to get organized! One part of my telepractice that I need to get in order is making sure I am following HIPAA, FERPA, and HITECH rules and guidelines. Take the time to read and develop procedures for legally protecting your clients and yourself. 



What is HIPAA?

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

Below is my current list of useful links specifically related to HIPAA.

HealthIT.gov

Official Website of The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)

Texting and HIPAA

https://luxsci.com/blog/to-text-or-not-to-text-sending-text-messages-under-hipaa.html

Google Drive/G Suite and HIPAA compliance

https://telehealth.org/blog/which-cloud-storage-services-are-hipaa-compliant/

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/cloud-computing/index.html

Document from US Dept of Commerce

The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing

BAA’s

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/covered-entities/sample-business-associate-agreement-provisions/index.html

What is FERPA?

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

What is HITECH?

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health

https://wayback.archive-it.org/3926/20131018161347/http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/10/20091030a.html

Sharing HIPAA fines and victims of security breaches with public

https://compliancy-group.com/will-new-laws-allow-patients-to-cash-in-on-hipaa-fines/