Under HIPAA, the responsibilities of covered entities include safeguarding patients' health information. What are the two main types of safeguards they must implement?

Covered entities under HIPAA are required to implement comprehensive measures to protect patients' health information, primarily categorized into administrative safeguards and technical safeguards.

Administrative safeguards refer to the policies and procedures that manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect electronic health information and to manage the conduct of the workforce in relation to the protection of that information. These safeguards include risk assessments, workforce training, and incident response plans.

Technical safeguards are the technologies and related policies and procedures that protect electronic health information and control access to it. This includes access controls, audit controls, integrity controls, and transmission security measures that ensure data confidentiality and integrity in electronic formats.

Together, these two types of safeguards create a robust approach to securing health information, fulfilling the requirements laid out by HIPAA to protect against unauthorized access and breaches.