Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Compliance Support for NC Businesses
PCG helps NC healthcare providers, business associates, and covered entities subject to HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules achieve and maintain HIPAA compliance through gap assessment, control implementation, evidence collection, and audit readiness support.
What Is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the cybersecurity and compliance framework that applies to nc healthcare providers, business associates, and covered entities subject to hipaa privacy and security rules. The framework is structured around Privacy Rule, Security Rule (administrative, physical, and technical safeguards), Breach Notification Rule, and Omnibus Rule for business associates, built on 45 CFR Parts 160, 162, and 164.
When HIPAA Compliance Is Required
HIPAA compliance is required for any organization that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits Protected Health Information (PHI). This includes healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and any business associates handling PHI on behalf of these entities.
What Happens If You Are Not Compliant
HIPAA violations can result in civil penalties up to $1.9 million per violation type per year, criminal penalties up to $250,000 and 10 years imprisonment for willful violations, mandatory breach notification, and reputational damage.
PCG HIPAA Compliance Services
End-to-end HIPAA support from gap assessment through audit readiness.
HIPAA Security Rule risk assessment with documented findings
Administrative, physical, and technical safeguard implementation
Business Associate Agreement (BAA) management and review
Breach response procedures and incident response playbooks
Workforce security training and access management
Audit log monitoring and breach detection capabilities
HIPAA Compliance: Your Questions Answered
What healthcare businesses need HIPAA compliance?
HIPAA applies to covered entities (healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses) and business associates (vendors handling PHI on behalf of covered entities). This includes medical practices, dental practices, hospitals, urgent care, mental health providers, billing services, EHR vendors, and IT providers managing healthcare environments.
What is required for HIPAA Security Rule risk assessment?
The HIPAA Security Rule requires regular risk assessments documenting threats and vulnerabilities to ePHI, the likelihood and impact of each, current safeguards in place, and remediation plans for identified gaps. Most NC healthcare practices conduct risk assessments annually.
How does PCG handle our Business Associate Agreements?
PCG provides BAAs to all healthcare clients as required by HIPAA. We also help review BAAs from your other vendors, identify gaps in vendor compliance documentation, and maintain a vendor inventory with current BAA status.
What happens if we have a HIPAA breach?
PCG provides breach response support including incident containment, forensic investigation, breach notification preparation, and OCR reporting if required. Breach response begins within minutes of detection through our 24/7 SOC monitoring.
Get a Free HIPAA Gap Assessment
Find out where you stand and what it takes to achieve HIPAA compliance. Written assessment delivered within two weeks.