(Legacy) Adding and Managing Vendors

Modified on Tue, 31 Oct, 2023 at 2:34 PM

Vendors, or Business Associates are identified by HIPAA as a person or Organization, other than a member of a Covered Entity’s workforce, that performs certain functions or activities on behalf of, or provides certain services to, a Covered Entity that involves the creation, transmission, maintenance, or receipt of PHI. Vendors may use or disclose a Covered Entity’s PHI, but only in accordance with HIPAA regulations. These regulations require that a Covered Entity and Vendor enter into an agreement, called a Business Associate Agreement, in which the Vendors agrees to safeguard the Covered Entity’s PHI that it will access.

The Guard's Vendor Management Screen allows Organizations to track and house Agreements that are in place with the Vendors the work with. Once logged into The Guard, select Vendors from the left navigational panel to add or view your Vendors, and build their profiles.

Once Vendors have been entered into The Guard, The Vendor Management Home Page will share a brief overview of the activity of the people or Organizations you work with.

To Add a Vendor, click the blue Add Vendor button on the page

This will allow you to begin building the Vendors Profile.

Name: The name of the Organization you are looking to partner with
Agreement Type: Select whether this relationship requires a Business Associates Agreement, or a Confidentiality Agreement
First Name: The first name of the contact you have at the Organization
Last Name: The last name of the contact you have at the Organization
Contact Email: The contacts email address
Contact Phone: The contacts phone number
Address: The physical address of the Organization you are partnering with

Continuing down the profile, you can upload the Business Associate, or Confidentiality Agreement that is housed in The Guards Documents Manager to the Vendor Profile. You have the ability to ask The Guard to send that Agreement out after the Profile has been created by selecting Send BA Agreement from the menu Icon on the Vendor Home Page

If you are unsure if you should work with a Vendor as they may not have the appropriate safeguards in place, you can vet the Vendor by sending out The Guard Vendor Audit. This will as the Vendor to complete a series of Yes/No questions regarding the Vendors safeguards in order for you to approve or deny doing business with the Vendor.

Back inside the Vendor Profile, once you have a signed Business Associate, or Confidentiality Agreement signed, you have the opportunity to upload the file (or other Files you may want to house) right into the Vendor Profile.

Ensure that you have the Business Associate Agreement saved on your computer, and then select the Browse button. Find the File and add it. Select whether this is a Vendor Audit, Business Associates Agreement or Misc. Click Upload and you will see the File now on the Profile. Click Save at the bottom right.

*If you have any questions on Adding or Managing your Vendors, please contact [email protected]