Are you HIPAA Compliant?
Branch Technologies can perform a network and policy assessment of your practice to ensure HIPAA compliance. Once compliant our remote monitoring tools will keep you up to date.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. Any company that deals with protected health information (PHI) must ensure that all the required physical, network, and process security measures are in place and followed.
This includes covered entities (CE), anyone who provides treatment, payment and operations in healthcare, and business associates (BA), anyone with access to patient information and provides support in treatment, payment or operations. Subcontractors, or business associates of business associates, must also be in compliance.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule addresses the saving, accessing and sharing of medical and personal information of any individual, while the HIPAA Security Rule more specifically outlines national security standards to protect health data created, received, maintained or transmitted electronically, also known as electronic protected health information (ePHI).
If you are hosting your data with a HIPAA compliant hosting provider, they must have certain administrative, physical and technical safeguards in place, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The physical and technical safeguards are most relevant to services provided by your HIPAA compliant host as listed below, with detail on what constitutes a HIPAA compliant data center.
Physical safeguards include limited facility access and control, with authorized access in place. All covered entities, or companies that must be HIPAA compliant, must have policies about use and access to workstations and electronic media. This includes transferring, removing, disposing and re-using electronic media and electronic protected health information (ePHI).
Technical safeguards require access control to allow only the authorized to access electronic protected health data. Access control includes using unique user IDs, an emergency access procedure, automatic log off and encryption and decryption.
Audit reports, or tracking logs, must be implemented to keep records of activity on hardware and software. This is especially useful to pinpoint the source or cause of any security violations.
Technical policies should also cover integrity controls, or measures put in place to confirm that ePHI hasn’t been altered or destroyed. IT disaster recovery and offsite backup are key to ensure that any electronic media errors or failures can be quickly remedied and patient health information can be recovered accurately and intact.
Network, or transmission, security is the last technical safeguard required of HIPAA compliant hosts to protect against unauthorized public access of ePHI. This concerns all methods of transmitting data, whether it be email, Internet, or even over a private network, such as a private cloud.
A supplemental act was passed in 2009 called The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act which supports the enforcement of HIPAA requirements by raising the penalties of health organizations that violate HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. The HITECH Act was formed in response to health technology development and increased use, storage and transmittal of electronic health information.
HIPAA News
- OCR Reaches HIPAA Settlement with Behavioral Health Care Provider Over Alleged HIPAA Security Rule Violations - The National Law Review July 15, 2025OCR Reaches HIPAA Settlement with Behavioral Health Care Provider Over Alleged HIPAA Security Rule Violations The National Law Review
- OCR Reaches HIPAA Settlement with Behavioral Health Care Provider Over Alleged HIPAA Security Rule Violations - Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP July 15, 2025OCR Reaches HIPAA Settlement with Behavioral Health Care Provider Over Alleged HIPAA Security Rule Violations Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
- When Disaster Strikes, HHS Hits Pause On HIPAA Rules - Law360 July 15, 2025When Disaster Strikes, HHS Hits Pause On HIPAA Rules Law360
- XLA Health Launches Modern Outsourcing Platform to Help Medical Practices Slash Administrative Overload - TradingView July 15, 2025XLA Health Launches Modern Outsourcing Platform to Help Medical Practices Slash Administrative Overload TradingView
- U.S. District Court Ruling Vacates HIPAA Final Rule that Strengthened Privacy Protections for Reproductive Health Information - JD Supra July 15, 2025U.S. District Court Ruling Vacates HIPAA Final Rule that Strengthened Privacy Protections for Reproductive Health Information JD Supra
- District Court Vacates HIPAA Reproductive Health Care Rule - Healthcare - United States - Mondaq July 15, 2025District Court Vacates HIPAA Reproductive Health Care Rule - Healthcare - United States Mondaq
- Alert: Digital Access Dangers from Non-Clinical Staff: How to Avoid Costly and Damaging HIPAA Violations - Telehealth.org July 15, 2025Alert: Digital Access Dangers from Non-Clinical Staff: How to Avoid Costly and Damaging HIPAA Violations Telehealth.org
- Long-term care behavioral health provider pays $225K to settle HIPAA case - McKnight's Long-Term Care News July 15, 2025Long-term care behavioral health provider pays $225K to settle HIPAA case McKnight's Long-Term Care News
- Email Data Breaches Reported by Three HIPAA-Regulated Entities - The HIPAA Journal July 14, 2025Email Data Breaches Reported by Three HIPAA-Regulated Entities The HIPAA Journal
- How does HIPAA protect your health data? Free class offers answers - Cleveland.com July 14, 2025How does HIPAA protect your health data? Free class offers answers Cleveland.com