Understanding security and compliance is essential for healthcare providers and healthcare IT professionals alike.
Security and compliance go hand-in-hand to keep sensitive healthcare data safe. Managed service providers (MSPs) and IT service providers are posed particularly well to take advantage of this interrelationship and grow new business in healthcare. Healthcare is currently one of the fastest growing sectors of the US economy–and with the advent of new electronic and digital platforms for the storage and transmission of confidential health data, there’s never been a better time to acquire new healthcare clients.
So how can you ensure that you’re addressing both to keep clients’ healthcare data safe from breaches and fines?
What is Compliance?
For healthcare professionals, HIPAA compliance is an essential set of industry standards that are required to ensure the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI).
There are a few key HIPAA Rules that all healthcare providers must comply with. Two of the most important HIPAA Rules are the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule.
Each of the HIPAA Rules is composed of a series of national implementation standards. These standards set specific guidelines for the creation and deployment of an effective compliance program.
The HIPAA Security Rules outlines administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that all healthcare providers and their vendors must address. Think of them like this:
- Administrative safeguards are all about policies, procedures, documentation, and staff training.
- Technical safeguards are about implementing network security infrastructure, such as firewalls, data backup, data encryption, and malware protection.
- Physical safeguards are the things you do to protect the physical premises of a healthcare office, such as locks, alarm systems, and card-key or role-based access if the organization is large enough.
Therefore, in order to address security properly, healthcare professionals must abide by the security standards outlined in the regulation. HIPAA defines the type of security work that needs to get done, giving necessary structure to security programs and an outline to follow during the implementation process.
What is Security?
Security addresses a fundamental part of HIPAA regulation as mandated by the HIPAA Security Rule. The security infrastructure required by HIPAA regulation is meant to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI. Specifically as it applies to HIPAA, the most important thing to ensure is that PHI is being kept private and secure.
Security is where the value of a health IT professional’s expertise comes in handy. Likely, the security measures mandated by HIPAA will already be standards among your service offerings. Things like email encryption, data encryption, firewalls, penetration testing, cybersecurity infrastructure, and security risk assessments are all important elements of a proper security program that also address HIPAA requirements for security.
Because health IT professionals are already addressing these security components in their business, offering HIPAA compliance as a service is a natural synthesis with the work IT professionals are already doing.
Managed service providers (MSPs) and IT service providers are primed to use HIPAA to compliment the security work they already do, to make recurring revenue on existing clients in healthcare–or find new ones.
Security and Compliance: Why You Need BOTH
The truth is, no compliance program is complete without security measures to go along with it, and no health IT security infrastructure is totally effective without an overarching compliance program.
The two are inextricably linked–and by partnering with a HIPAA compliance as a service provider like Compliancy Group, health IT professionals can start helping healthcare clients and growing new revenue streams.
