Dental codes to follow for bulletproof compliance

Many rules and regulations have been established by dental boards, such as The Occupational Safety and Health  Administration (OSHA) enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and The Health Insurance  Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) to ensure that each dental practice is compliance-friendly.  Dental compliance ensures patient’s safety and security. Below are the standards that are required to be followed  by every dental professional. 

Compliance in Dental Facilities 

• Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (29 CFR 1910.1030.): As per this standard, dental facilities are supposed  to design and maintain an exposure plan, install hazardous wastes such as needles and sharps, maintain  and provide personal protective equipment for their staff and patients, etc. 
• Dental facilities are required to have exit plans in case of any emergencies. A user-friendly diagram should  also be placed to get people acquainted with the emergency exit layout. Additionally, all the equipment  and wiring should be compliant with electrical safety norms set by the accredited institutions.  
• Health Information & Quality Authority (HIQA) and Environment Protection Agencies (EPA) have  mandated regulation towards ionizing radiation to protect patients. Dental staff and professionals from  any hazardous radiations. 

HIPAA Compliance 

In today’s era, almost all the dental information is managed as well transferred between specialists, dental  professionals, and labs using various electronic modalities. Dental practitioners nowadays use computerized  physician order entry (CPOE) systems, electronic health records (EHR), and radiology, pharmacy, and laboratory  systems. While this form of dental data management is convenient. It also widens the scope of data loss, data  breach, and other malicious activities. 

To overcome such issues, medical and dental boards have established various regulations such as HIPAA  compliance in order to protect patients’ information. HIPPA compliance has mandated the use of physical as well  as cybersecurity safeguards to ensure prime security of patients’ data management and transmission.  

The most important goal of the Security Rule is to protect the privacy of data. The Security Rule is designed to be  flexible and scalable so a covered entity can implement policies, procedures, and technologies that are appropriate for the entity’s particular size, organizational structure, and risks to consumers’ e-PHI. 

General Rules of HIPPA Compliance as per US Department of Health and Human Services: 

1. Ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all e-PHI they create, receive, maintain or transmit. 
2. Identify and protect against reasonably anticipated threats to the security or integrity of the information; 
3. Protect against reasonably anticipated, impermissible uses or disclosures; and 
4. Ensure compliance by their workforce. 

Here confidentiality word establishes that e-PHI should not be available or accessible to an unauthorized person.  Additionally, integrity here means that e-PHI should not be altered or destroyed in an unauthorized manner.  Furthermore, the word availability states that the information should be easily accessible to the authorized person. Steps to be taken to ensure HIPPA compliance within the facility:

1. Secured Process: Ensure that all the HIPPA compliant documents are compiled on a single platform which  can only be accessed by authorized personals. 
2. Security Assurance: Monitor and periodically update the list of authorized personals who can access the  HIPAA-protected documents. Keep a check on all the logins to the platform. 
3. Device Control and Access Authorization: An alert system should be established which can proactively  determine the access credentials of the person who logged in within the system. 
4. Environment Monitoring: Every member working within the facility should be verified and credentialed.  Each login and logout should be monitored 24/7.  
5. Periodic Assessment: Periodic assessment of established security norms should be done for bulletproof  compliance. 
6. Periodic Workforce Training: The workforce should be trained periodically to keep them updated with the  norms and regulations. 

As most dental professionals trust dental billing companies to manage their data and billing documents, it is  necessary to choose companies like Capline Dental Services that are HIPPA Compliant and follow the compliance  norms religiously.