In 2009, as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act was passed.  It is more commonly known as the HITECH Act.  The bill was introduced to increase the use to Electronic Health Records (EHR) and to make HIPPA carry more weight.  The Act increased the penalties for “willful neglect” and requires all business associates to comply with HIPPA. This could include software vendors, contracted janitorial services, or any minor supplier of services that could have access to the area where health records are stored.  Healthcare providers and now all business associates are required to report a breach of security if it occurs.  Since third parties are given more opportunities to access protected information, they can now be held responsible for breaches of security instead of only healthcare providers. HITECH was designed to make sure everyone in the medical world knows the importance of HIPPA and is making strides to protect the privacy of patient information.
To help you be compliant, Underground Vaults & Storage offers storage and destruction services.  All employees are bonded and trained in the importance of security.  From the time we take possession of the files at your practice until their eventual destruction, your files never leave our possession. We handle legal and industry specific compliance concerns and you maintain 24/7 access with digital file transfer and a dedicated transportation fleet.