What is a HIPAA risk assessment?
The objective of a HIPAA risk assessment is to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of all protected health information (PHI) that an organization creates, receives, maintains, or transmits.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) does not specify a particular risk analysis methodology because covered entities and business associates vary in size, complexity, and capabilities. To meet the objective of a HIPAA risk assessment, HHS suggests an organization should:
- Identify where PHI is stored, received, maintained, or transmitted
- Identify and document potential threats and vulnerabilities
- Assess current security measures used to safeguard PHI
- Assess the proper usage of existing security measures
- Determine the likelihood of a reasonably anticipated threat
- Determine the potential impact of a breach of PHI
- Assign risk levels for vulnerability and impact combinations
- Document the assessment and take action where necessary
HIPAA risk assessments are not a one-time event; they require periodic reviews when introducing new technology or implementing new work practices.
Join our product demo to discover how automation, continuous monitoring, and centralized workflows can streamline your GRC program, enhance control visibility, and improve vendor and buyer security management—all within a single platform.
Join our product demo to discover how automation, continuous monitoring, and centralized workflows can streamline your GRC program, enhance control visibility, and improve vendor and buyer security management—all within a single platform.
Watch our on-demand webinar with John Hammond—cybersecurity researcher, practitioner, and content creator with nearly two million YouTube subscribers—and Matt Cooper, Vanta’s Director of GRC, for a fireside chat on AI, security maturity, and the top security risks in 2025.
Watch our special Ask Me Almost Anything (AMAA) session featuring Vanta CISO Jadee Hanson, along with Mandy Matthew, Senior Security Risk Program Manager at Duolingo, and Divya Singh, Senior Director of Compliance and Privacy at Chegg.
Watch Vanta’s 45-minute demo to see how our platform automates up to 90% of the work for achieving ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance, helping you streamline security and move towards continuous compliance.
.svg)
.svg)
