after_hero

Blog

HIPAA Requirements: why you need to implement them?

HIPAA is acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It was made enacted by US Congress to improve portability of health insurance coverage, combat fraud and abuse in health insurance and to simplify the administration of health insurance. The other important purpose of the act is ensuring the security of personal information of the patients. This is the area we can help you improve in your project.

HIPAA implementation is compulsory for every business, connected with healthcare. The rule was designed to be flexible enough to cover the basic aspects of security. Each organization is responsible for determining what their security needs are and how they will accomplish them.

The HIPAA compliance framework has three primary sections, or ‘rules’:

  • HIPAA Security Rule – The minimum standards for protecting Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI)
  • HIPAA Privacy Rule – How ePHI can be used and disclosed
  • HIPAA Breach Notification Rule – Steps that must be taken in the event of a breach

The HIPAA Security Rule extends the HIPAA Privacy Rule to include electronic protected health information (ePHI). All ePHI must be properly secured from a breach, whether the data is at rest or in transit.

How we can implement HIPAA to your project

The HIPAA Security Rule requires patient health information to be secured and available only for authorized users, but not improperly accessed or used. There are three types of safeguards that you need to be implemented: administrative, physical and technical.

Administrative Safeguards

Administrative safeguards are the policies and procedures that protect data from a breach. They determine documentation processes, roles and responsibilities, training requirements, data maintenance policies and more. Administrative protections ensure that the physical and technical protections are implemented properly and consistently.

Physical Safeguards

Physical safeguards make sure data is physically protected. They include security systems and video surveillance, door and window locks, and safe locations for servers and computers. They even include policies about mobile devices and removing hardware and software from certain locations.

Technical Safeguards

Technical safeguards are the technology and related policies, that protect data from unauthorized access. This is the area, within we can help you. EaZySoft use at least 5 Standarts of HIPAA to ensure security of ePHI of your organization: Access Control, Audit Controls, Protection against unauthorized alterations, Verifying access to ePHI Implementation and Transmission Security.

Although HIPAA presents effective security points, it doesn’t cover all available threats you could be faced with, because HIPAA requirements provide only a basic floor of privacy and security. If a covered entity or business association does no more than comply with HIPAA, it will simply be doing the bare minimum to safeguard patient’s data. Now we can say, HIPAA requirements implementation is good way to protect your organization from fines and penalties. The best solution to keep your health information secure is to start thinking beyond binding acts and develop your secure system.

Jan 21st, 2018
Affter_section_gray