If your work requires you to store medical data, you should be aware of how important your data security is, as a problem could potentially put your business at risk of closing up shop permanently. Security has to be a priority with so many regulations setting compliance standards that must be followed.
What Exactly Is HIPAA Compliance?
The definition of HIPAA compliance is as simple as “obeying HHS laws to guard Protected Health Information (PHI) from leaks.” That’s a deceptively simple statement, since being compliant requires organizations to follow all the standards in at least three major “Rules.” To make the struggle even harder, some of those Rules are over 500 pages each.
HIPAA, or the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, governs the use and handling of patient PHI.
Who Needs to Be HIPAA Compliant?
All HIPAA Compliance standards in this guide apply to “covered entities.” That is, businesses and other organizations that work with PHI (Protected Health Information). Covered entities include:
- Private Practices
- Clinics
- Dentists
- Psychologists
- Nursing Homes
- Chiropractors
- Pharmacies
- Health Plans
- Clearinghouses
Business associates of covered entities must also be compliant. A business associate is any entity that helps a covered entity perform its health care functions. Think of a medical claims adjuster or similar. Anyone business that is connected to an organization that must be HIPAA complaint, must also be compliant.
How Can You Be HIPAA Compliant?
To be HIPAA compliant, a covered entity has to follow all the major HHS compliance laws. Those govern Protected Health Information in physical and electronic form. They also control how facilities and employees interact with that information, and what to do in case of a breach.
When looking at your HIPAA Compliance, here’s three areas and tips for your business:
Encrypt Your Data
While, HIPAA doesn’t dictate that your business data be encrypted, you should still not ignore the value of encryption. When data is encrypted, it is scrambled so that it can only be properly viewed only with an encryption key. A solid, military-grade encryption should be enough to discourage the average hacker.
Front End User Security Implementation
This goes to the idea of being more proactive than reactive. Would you rather stop an attack before it affects you, or wait until your infrastructure has been compromised?
With proper front-end user security measures such as firewalls or email filters, these first lines of defense will filter out incoming malicious links and attachments sent your way.
Restricting Access to User Roles
It stands to reason that the more people who have access to something, the likelier it is for threats to get in, too.
However, limiting a user’s access to the resources they need to complete their work helps to cut down on your potential exposure. This is especially important in an industry that is as data-heavy as healthcare, with records as extensive as medical ones are.
Conclusion
If your business handles sensitive information like medical records, you may not be compliant to industry regulations, and become subject to fines. If you’re in an industry, or connected to an industry that we’ve listed above, contact the experts at Alliance IT to discuss ways to ensure your HIPAA compliance and data security.
