What is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a U.S. federal law enacted in 1996. It was designed to provide data privacy and security provisions to safeguard medical information. The primary purpose of HIPAA is to protect individuals’ health information while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide high-quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well-being.
What is Required for HIPAA Compliance?
HIPAA compliance involves adhering to a set of regulations that include the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Breach Notification Rule. These rules outline standards for the protection of electronic protected health information (ePHI):
- Privacy Rule: Establishes standards for the protection of PHI and gives patients rights over their health information.
- Security Rule: Sets standards for the protection of ePHI that is created, received, used, or maintained by a covered entity. It requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards.
- Breach Notification Rule: Requires covered entities and their business associates to provide notification following a breach of unsecured PHI.
What Types of Entities Need to Be Compliant?
HIPAA compliance is mandatory for the following types of entities:
- Covered Entities: This includes health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers who transmit health information in electronic form.
- Business Associates: Any person or organization that performs certain functions or activities involving the use or disclosure of PHI on behalf of, or provides services to, a covered entity. This can include third-party administrators, consultants, and IT service providers.
How Does BDT and Field Effect Meet the Technical Requirements for a Covered Client?
As a Managed Service Provider (MSP), use Field Effect’s Covalence platform to meet the technical safeguard requirements of HIPAA compliance for covered clients. Here’s how Covalence addresses key technical safeguards:
Access Control: Covalence enforces access control by monitoring authentication attempts and identifying unauthorized access patterns. It helps ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information.
Audit Controls: The platform maintains logs of all security-relevant events, providing an audit trail that is crucial for compliance and forensic analysis.
Integrity Controls: Covalence detects unauthorized changes to data and helps maintain data integrity, ensuring that ePHI is not altered or destroyed in an unauthorized manner.
Person or Entity Authentication: The solution ensures that the identities of individuals accessing the system are verified, thereby protecting against unauthorized access.
Transmission Security: Covalence monitors and secures data transmission, protecting against unauthorized interception and ensuring that ePHI is securely transmitted.
Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts: The platform provides continuous monitoring of network and endpoint activity, detecting and alerting on potential security incidents.
Vulnerability Management: Covalence identifies vulnerabilities in the IT environment, offering actionable recommendations to remediate these risks.
vCISO (virtual Chief Information Security Officer) Services
While Covalence offers comprehensive monitoring and security features, there are some aspects of HIPAA compliance that a cybersecurity system would not fully cover:
Physical Safeguards: Covalence focuses on digital security and does not directly address physical safeguards such as facility access controls and workstation security.
Administrative Safeguards: Although Covalence can support administrative functions, such as training and policy development, these require active management and participation from the covered entity or business associate.
Policy and Procedure Documentation: Covalence can provide security insights, but it does not replace the need for documented policies and procedures, which are a critical component of HIPAA compliance.
BDT and Field Effect offer vCISO services to help covered entities and business associates implement robust physical and administrative safeguards, ensuring comprehensive HIPAA compliance. This integrated approach secures ePHI, protecting both the organization and its clients from potential security and privacy breaches.