Behavioural Health Agency Software: Privacy Best Practices

Behavioural health agency software can give your organization the confidence in security it needs to run effectively. HIPAA (USA) and PIPEDA (Canada) are enacted rules, regulations, and legislation that govern the privacy of important health data. During a time where more and more processes are digital, it is vital to protect the information of the client. There are key differences between HIPAA and PIPEDA that are important to understand. For behavioural health providers, the right agency software can ensure your client PII is always protected and secure.

What is the Difference Between PIPEDA and HIPAA?

HIPAA

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. This is the national ruling in the United States that aims to protect a client or patient’s Personal Health Information (PHI). It is a federal law that sets the national standard of the protection of sensitive patient health data from disclosure without patient consent. All software used by healthcare providers and mental health providers is expected to meet this standard of privacy best practice across all the United States

PIPEDA

PIPEDA stands for the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. It is a Canadian federal law that sets the standard of privacy for private-sector organizations. It sets the foundation for how businesses must handle personal data in the course of commercial activity. This applies to personal data within the health services field as well as outside of it. Data must be collected with consent and for a reasonable purpose, used and disclosed for the limited purpose for which it was collected, accurate, accessible, and stored securely.

What are the Major Differences?

The biggest difference between HIPAA and PIPEDA is what areas they are defined by. HIPAA applies to health services where PIPEDA law expands over all fields and services. PIPEDA requires the protection of Personally Identifiable Information such as Age, name, ID numbers, income, ethnicity, bloody time, social status, employee files, credit records, and more. PIPEDA goes farther than HIPAA does to protect PII across all industries. For mental and behavioural health providers, this matters in regard to the storage, security, and privacy of client data.

Find Confidence in the Right Behavioural Health Agency Software:

For behavioural health providers, the right behavioural health agency software can help give your organization and confidence it needs to adhere to privacy best practices. In order to comply with PIPEDA standards, agency software can truly make a difference. The right behavioural health agency software will keep all clients personally identifiable information under secure lock and key, ensuring it never falls into the wrong hands.

Agency software will ensure that only authorized users within your organization can access the secure data so that you never fall into compliance risk. Your clients can rest assured that their data is safe in your hands.

Working with the right vendor of behavioural health agency software will make adhering to privacy standards simple and easy. To learn more about a vendor of behavioural health agency software that might be right for you, click here.