HIPAA---What Gateway Health Plan® does to protect PHI!

Our motto is: Confidentiality is everyone’s job—protect all information, all the time!

Protecting your confidential information and PHI (protected health information) is a priority to us! We want you to know that we are committed to protecting all information, all the time. That includes protecting information provided in verbal, paper or in an electronic format.

First and foremost, we believe in the value of providing ongoing compliance and privacy education to our employees. Gateway employees are reminded of the importance of protecting confidential information through a variety of ways. These include: annual department refresher training sessions, sharing current news articles on privacy concerns and risks, displaying posters on business floors, access to an on-line compliance reference library, and easy access to policies and staff who are available to provide help with compliance or privacy questions.

Next, we expect all employees to understand and embrace their roles in protecting PHI. Earlier this year we asked our employees to share their best “ounce of prevention” tip for protecting confidential information. We received a great response! We have posted their tips on our bulletin boards and on our on-line Compliance Corner so everyone can learn from these good practices.

Last, but certainly just as important, Gateway takes a proactive approach to privacy and we are happy to share a few examples of how we do that. For the past several years we have audited desks after normal business hours to check to be sure information was protected from view or access and disposed of properly. This year we also checked that employees who joined our organization were given the correct access to computer systems, we implemented better ways to protect data shared in electronic files and stored in databases, and observed conversations in our business elevators to be sure confidential conversations were not taking place in public areas.

Gateway is proud of our employees’ dedication and commitment to protecting all information, all the time and we will continue to provide relevant training to keep them aware of potential risks.

We are happy to be your health insurance plan and we want you to know we care about you AND protecting your PHI and confidential information!