The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) upgraded the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool to version 3.3. This version includes SRA Excel Workbook as well.
What is SRA Tool?
Six years ago, ONC and OCR developed the SRA Tool. It aimed to assist covered small and medium healthcare organizations in maintaining compliance with HIPAA Security Rule. It can guide health organizations through all processes and aspects of compliance. The tool is a desktop app that companies can install for free. The Security Risk Assessment Tool involves a wizard-like method. This methodology includes multiple-choice questions, evaluation of threats and weak spots, and assets and vendors’ control. Also, the application gets users through the security risk assessment process.
Why is Security Risk Assessment Important?
Security risk assessment is an essential process for every covered entity (CE) and business associate (BA), as it helps estimate their compliance with HIPAA Security Rule administrative, technical, and physical requirements to provide ePHI security and privacy. Unfortunately, HIPAA-covered entities’ examinations and audits show that they often fail to conduct risk assessments and analyses. So, it’s one of the most widespread violations determined by the OCR.
What does SRA Tool Update Include?
The tool supported updates for years. The late 3.3 version considered feedback from users and publicity. It includes implementing Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) references, file association in Windows, reporting improvements, fixed bugs, and stability enhancements.
About SRA Tool Excel Workbook
The institutions also launched the SRA Tool Excel Workbook to change the outdated paper version of the tool. This alternate version of the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool is composed of the same content as the Windows desktop app but is presented in the well-known spreadsheet view. The SRA Tool Excel Workbook also involves extra formatting and formulas to estimate and assist in threat detection in the same way as the SRA Tool. So, the Excel Workbook is an excellent solution for those who don’t have Microsoft Excel.
Additional Information
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) warned potential users that the tool couldn’t ensure HIPAA compliance for healthcare organizations. Still, it can assist them in their achievement. However, the users’ audience of the tool is mainly small to large businesses, so it simply doesn’t suit large enterprises. In addition, it is suitable only for 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7-11 when the Excel Workbook applies to any system. You can download tools here.
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