Increasing online activity by patients, doctors and insurers increases the risk of exposing sensitive patient information. From a health point of view, one of the…
Increasing online activity by patients, doctors and insurers increases the risk of exposing sensitive patient information.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the standard that directly addresses these issues and is updated annually to accommodate new technological innovations in the industry. To effectively implement the rules and spirit of the standard, it is helpful to understand what the standard is and its objectives.
A significant benefit of HIPAA for workers who are changing jobs or who are unemployed is the provision of coverage during the transition, which may be switching to an individual plan with their previous employer or purchasing a government-sponsored plan. Recent years have also seen changes to security and confidentiality requirements for protected health information (PHI), which is targeted by hackers and other malicious actors due to the wealth of sensitive personal information.
What is Required for HIPAA Compliant Healthcare Software Development Services 2024?
The range of entities that must comply with HIPAA is broad and includes:
- Healthcare providers such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, doctors, psychologists, dentists and chiropractors
- Health plans, including health insurance providers, HMOs, and government services that pay for Medicare, Medicaid, and VHA services
- Self-insured companies and healthcare clearinghouses
Business Associates (BAs), which are external entities that perform functions that involve accessing or disclosing PHI from a HIPAA entity, are also required to comply with HIPAA. This requirement may extend to subcontractors of business partners.
Cybersecurity: the foundation for complying with HIPAA 2024
As in other sectors where sensitive customer data is accumulated and maintained, healthcare providers are increasingly under attack by hackers and identity theft is a growing problem. To respond to this type of threat, more vigilance and better cybersecurity measures are needed.
Most of the time, basic protection measures are included in the software. For example, access security procedures and encryption are standard measures to protect against unauthorized breaches of data storage programs and tools, such as RDBs. It is clear that PHI is most vulnerable during transmission between computers on remotely located networks. This is included during operation and software delivery . Your software development service provider can anticipate problems and ensure protection.
In addition to exposing your patients to potential harm, there are penalties for not adhering to HIPAA 2024, which have increased slightly from the previous year. Therefore, it is up to you to institute guidelines to ensure that your PHI is secure and that your software development services are HIPAA 2024 compliant.
Ensuring Your Healthcare Software Development Services Are HIPAA 2024 Compliant
- Enter or update business partnership agreements with all software vendors.
- Make sure your software vendor or BA (and any of their subcontractors or suppliers) perform the required annual audits, which are:
- Security risk assessment
- Security standards audit
- HiTECH Audit Subtitle D
- Asset and device audit
- Physical Location Audit
- Periodically review HIPAA requirements for changes and implement them promptly. Your BAs must also follow this guideline.
- Ensure that any additional software development service providers are familiar with and able to comply with HIPAA compliance requirements.
To help ensure you are HIPAA 2024 compliant, it may be helpful to follow a checklist.
