How do I correctly dispose of PHI documents?

Under HIPAA, covered entities must follow a set of regulations designed to safeguard PHI. These regulations were put in place to limit incidental and prohibited exposure of PHI, including when that information is set for disposal. Certain policies and procedures must be followed to guarantee PHI are properly destroyed, including:

• Shredding, burning, pulping, or pulverizing the records so PHI becomes unreadable, indecipherable, & cannot be reconstructed.
• Maintaining labeled prescription bottles and other PHI in opaque bags in a secure area
• Using a disposal vendor as a business associate to pick up and shred or otherwise destroy the PHI.
• Overwriting PHI stored on electronic media with non-sensitive data
• Using a strong magnetic field to disrupt recorded magnetic domains urging
• Destroying the electronic media used to store PHI through disintegration, pulverization, melting, incinerating, or shredding