The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved renewing an agreement for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance services during Tuesday’s meeting.

A proposal was presented for a total cost of $10,800 from Carosh Compliance Solutions, LLC, following a visit the week before with CEO Roger Shindell. The county’s agreement with Carosh was up for renewal this April per an evergreen clause in their original engagement letter dated October 5, 2015. The proposal states that the tasks Carosh would focus to accomplish this coming year include continuing to conduct training for personnel in the county, identify who are the county’s business associates and assess each one’s compliance with HIPAA regulations, review and update the security and privacy risk assessment for both the county and each of its departments, and continuing the required ongoing internal audit and management of the counties’ security and privacy program. Carosh noted that given the pandemic and the price increases they are seeing from their vendors they instituted a 12.5% price increase on their services last July. County Auditor Dan Widmer explained that if they continue this agreement they would likely be less liable for any security breaches in the future.