As an IT service provider, you are always looking for new services you can offer your clients. You want these services to be something your clients need, an offering you can provide with a low barrier to entry, and something that provides your business the opportunity for growth.
For an IT service provider, reselling HIPAA compliance, or simply servicing a healthcare client, poses risks but can also be extremely rewarding. What is HIPAA for IT service providers? Why should I add HIPAA to my offerings?
HIPAA for IT Service Providers: Risks
Certain risks are associated with businesses that are required to be HIPAA compliant. These risks stem from the failure to comply with HIPAA rules and regulations or trusting the wrong information.
- Not being HIPAA compliant yourself. As an IT service provider, do I need to be HIPAA compliant? Yes, if you have just one healthcare client, you need to be HIPAA compliant. HIPAA law considers you a business associate (a business contracted by a healthcare organization with the potential to access their data). When you are not HIPAA compliant, you put your business and your clients’ businesses at risk of fines for HIPAA violations.
- Not having a business associate agreement. Part of HIPAA compliance requires you to have signed business associate agreements with your healthcare clients. Without a business associate agreement (BAA), you and your client could be held liable for a breach of patient information. A BAA limits your liability in the event of a breach as only the negligent party would be held liable. Without a signed BAA, both parties could be held liable regardless of who is at fault.
- Choosing the wrong partner to offer compliance to clients. There are several options to choose from as your HIPAA compliance partner, but not all are equal. Some HIPAA compliance services provide little guidance to their partners on servicing their healthcare clients. The right HIPAA partner will service your healthcare clients for you, allowing you to focus on what you do best, IT.
HIPAA for IT Service Providers: Rewards
While there are risks when it comes to HIPAA, there are multiple benefits that come from compliance.
- Offering clients a valuable service. Your healthcare clients need to be HIPAA compliant anyway, so why not offer to help them with it. Healthcare organizations often need help with HIPAA, seeking out a service to guide them. You can set your clients up for success by easing their HIPAA burden.
- Low barriers to entry with the right partner. HIPAA is complex, and your clients are likely to have a lot of questions. The good thing is that with the right HIPAA compliance provider as a partner, you can leave the questions to them. Longtime Compliancy Group Partner Ryan Smith, Director of Sales and Customer Success, Rigid Bits, stated, “In the first few years, we leveraged the Compliancy Group team to help us sell HIPAA to our clients, and after doing tons of demos with them, we were set up for a lot of success with HIPAA.”
- Increase your MRR. By offering HIPAA compliance services, IT service providers can increase their deal size by 10 – 20%. The ability to upsell with HIPAA compliance helps close more deals, and bundling in HIPAA with other offerings increases MRR.
- Justify advanced security offerings. Part of your client becoming HIPAA compliant requires them to conduct a security risk assessment (SRA). SRAs identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in their data security practices – which they will need your help to fix. “When completing my self-audits as a Compliancy Group customer, my partner light bulbs started to go on. There’s so much money to be made helping my existing clients become HIPAA compliant because once they go through all this work – when it comes to remediation, it’s this guy who has to help them. Then that drives the next six months for the customer. I am doing my customer a solid by helping them implement things they need to do anyway, I know that they’re super well taken care of as far as HIPAA, and I’m being well compensated for doing the work. It’s completely win-win,” Jesse Perry, Founder, JP Technical, commented.
- Increase potential client base. Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector of the economy and it’s recession-proof. By becoming HIPAA compliant and offering HIPAA to your clients, your potential client base grows exponentially. You can’t service the healthcare sector when you’re not HIPAA compliant.
- Clients stay sticky to your firm. Retaining clients is just as, if not more, important as gaining new clients. The more your clients’ needs you can satisfy, the more likely you are to keep them year after year. HIPAA can be the key to this. The regulation has annual requirements that must be met, and your clients need help to do so.
Compliancy Group’s Partner Program
Compliancy Group’s HIPAA Partner Program allows you to benefit from our industry-leading HIPAA compliance software and expertise. You handle the security; we’ll handle the compliance.
Our team of Compliance Coaches walk your clients through our HIPAA compliance software solution, enabling them to implement a complete HIPAA compliance program efficiently and effectively. As a Compliancy Group partner, you share in our profits with each client you bring to us without worrying about becoming a HIPAA expert yourself.
As an added value, you have exclusive access to our content marketing team, giving you the resources to educate your clients and sell HIPAA compliance. Find out more about our Partner Program!
