12 May Keeping Your Clients Safe with Shredding
In many industries, businesses are trusted with their clients’ sensitive information, such as contact information and even bank information. When it comes to handling such information, disposing of it properly is a key way to making sure that information stays safe and secure. Shredding has been proven to be one of the most secure and effective methods of disposing of documents that contain this information—and for certain industries, this proper disposal is even more important.
Industries That Benefit From Shredding
Correctly disposing of documents is required in certain industries that not only handle and obtain important information, but they are also legally obliged due to certain laws. For example, businesses in the medical, law, and education industries harbor clients’ information that is sensitive. These industries follow certain regulations and guidelines to correctly dispose of those documents while keeping the information secure.
Medical
The medical and healthcare industry is one of the industries that is required to shred documents the most, due to the various laws and regulations put in place to keep patient and staff information. In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was passed to protect patient health information at a national standard. HIPPA includes not only patients’ identifiable information, but also the information for providers, healthcare plans, and business partners.
HIPPA requires covered business associates and entities to hold sensitive documentation for a minimum of six years since it’s creation or the last time it went into effect. Some states have a shorter retention rate that can override this regulation. These rules include risk assessments, employee sanction policies, and complaint and resolution documents, to name a few. HIPPA actually requires that once these documents have passed the retention period they are properly disposed of through shredding with specific secure guidelines. Greenway Shredding and Recycling offers shredding that meets these HIPPA- specific guidelines, for secure document destruction in the healthcare field.
Law
Law offices and agencies are another industry that greatly benefit from shredding. In fact, there are laws that require the correct disposal of certain documents and information. Two of these laws that regulate proper disposal of certain documents are the Social Security Act of 1934 and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. The Social Security Act prohibits companies from sharing customer’s confidential information, and FACTA makes customers privacy an obligation of the company.
Making sure that certain information and documents are properly disposed of is required by these regulations. They must be shredded to the point that they are unreadable and permanently destroyed. FACTA even suggests that a professional document destruction company should be hired to handle sensitive documents if possible. Documents that should be shredded in a law office include bank statements, police reports, evidence, and personal records.
Government
In government office and agencies, there can be countless documents, papers, and files with sensitive information on them. Due to the amount of information these offices hold, they are regulated by similar regulations as law firms, including FACTA. Government offices are also regulated by the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002. This requires agencies to store financial data for certain periods of time, and includes regulations for “proper destruction”. Shredding is the best way to make sure your documents are disposed of, and the information is secured.
Education
Another industry that can utilize shredding is the education field. Schools have hundreds of students and staff, and with each individual comes dozens of documents with sensitive information on them. The education field, similar to law firms and government agencies, are required by certain laws and regulations to protect the students and staff. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, protects students information and requires that it is properly protected. In order to meet these regulations, shredding these sensitive documents is the most secure course of action for disposal.
The Process of Shredding
Shredding is the most secure way to dispose of documents that contain sensitive information, regardless of your occupation or industry. When shredding, especially while trying to meet regulations about disposal, it can be difficult to make sure that the document is completely unreadable. Trying to shred your own documents comes with risks. Often times, common and inexpensive shredders don’t shred your documents into small enough pieces. Hiring a professional shredding company, such as Greenway, can provide the services needed and the peace of mind in knowing the documents have been properly destroyed. Greenway Shredding offers different services depending on specific needs, such as purging and automated options. Greenway even offers HIPAA- compliant shredding services for the healthcare industry.
Purging
Greenway offers a purging service, that is a one- time scheduled document destruction of any amount. When your documents are ready to be destroyed, contact Greenway and schedule a pickup. Once the documents are picked up, our double- shred shredder will destroy the contents and we will provide a “Certificate of Destruction”.
Automated
The automated services at Greenway are a great option for businesses that will require consistent document destruction. With our automated service, businesses can schedule a pickup that works best for them either weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Greenway provides a Security Console at the location to put in documents that are ready to be destroyed . With the scheduled pickup, a Greenway drive will pickup the materials, shred the documents with our state of the art shredder, and provide a “Certificate of Destruction” for your records.
Contact Greenway Shredding and Recycling
Industries, such as medical, educational, and governmental agencies, benefit from working with a professional shredding company like Greenway. This allows the businesses destroy documents that have sensitive information, or that are regulated and mandated by law. Through purging and automated services at Greenway, we have something that works for everyone. Contact Greenway Shredding and Recycling today to set up a system that works best for your business for document destruction.