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
- Kentucky Senate Advances Children's Medical Record Access Bill - HIPAA Journal March 28, 2024Kentucky Senate Advances Children's Medical Record Access Bill HIPAA Journal
- California and North Dakota Hospitals Report Cyberattacks - HIPAA Journal March 28, 2024California and North Dakota Hospitals Report Cyberattacks HIPAA Journal
- The HIPAA Privacy Rule and military health care: What parents of minors need to know - American Military News March 28, 2024The HIPAA Privacy Rule and military health care: What parents of minors need to know American Military News
- In Updated Guidance on Use of Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Regulated Entities, HHS-OCR Takes Expansive View ... - Goodwin Procter March 28, 2024In Updated Guidance on Use of Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Regulated Entities, HHS-OCR Takes Expansive View ... Goodwin Procter
- QuickBlox Releases One of the First HIPAA-Compliant Chatbots With OpenAI BAA - Newswire March 27, 2024QuickBlox Releases One of the First HIPAA-Compliant Chatbots With OpenAI BAA Newswire
- Utah Updates Breach Notification Law - HIPAA Journal March 27, 2024Utah Updates Breach Notification Law HIPAA Journal
- HHS Shares Credential Harvesting Mitigations - HIPAA Journal March 27, 2024HHS Shares Credential Harvesting Mitigations HIPAA Journal
- OCR Issues Further Guidance on Use of Web Trackers by Regulated Entities - JD Supra March 26, 2024OCR Issues Further Guidance on Use of Web Trackers by Regulated Entities JD Supra
- OCR at HHS Updates Guidance on Use of Online Tracking Technology by HIPAA-Regulated Entities - JD Supra March 26, 2024OCR at HHS Updates Guidance on Use of Online Tracking Technology by HIPAA-Regulated Entities JD Supra
- Clarification Sought from OCR About Change Healthcare Ransomware Breach Notifications - HIPAA Journal March 26, 2024Clarification Sought from OCR About Change Healthcare Ransomware Breach Notifications HIPAA Journal