HIPAA Compliance Services

Bringing 19 years in healthcare and vast experience with HIPAA, we will outline, explain, and help fulfill the applicable requirements for your business or software. As we stay informed about regulatory updates, we are ready to assist you in adapting your compliance programs accordingly.

In IT since 1989, we know the nuances of apps and infrastructures of any complexity, including those that involve IoT, cloud, AR/VR, blockchain technology. This helps us not only reveal the compliance gaps, but also eliminate them, and not only plan compliance but develop the entire solution based on the HIPAA principles.

Our expert team of HIPAA compliance consultants and cybersecurity engineers is ready to develop tailored breach response plans, investigate the breach and evaluate the risks, define and apply the necessary remediation measures, and guide you through the entire breach notification process.

We provide continuous HIPAA IT support. This includes scheduling and performing regular compliance assessments to ensure that you remain compliant as your organization or software undergoes any changes or that you keep up with the latest HIPAA requirements.

Our IT expertise and knowledge of the healthcare industry allows us to accurately identify the threats to PHI and vulnerabilities in your IT assets and evaluate the risks. We can provide an actionable risk management plan with prioritized steps or implement the needed safeguards to keep sensitive health data out of danger.

HIPAA compliance covers the set of measures on data handling and protection that businesses in healthcare must implement to ensure the privacy, security, and integrity of protected health information.

Some of the most frequent HIPAA violations include:

• Unauthorized PHI disclosure: e.g., posting patients' photos and medical conditions on social media without their consent, discussing sensitive health info with friends or colleagues.
• Failure to implement the technical safeguards required to secure PHI against data hacks: e.g., absent or weak encryption, misconfigured firewalls, antiviruses, and other security tools.
• Missing or inefficient employee training on compliance awareness. Employees' negligence or ignorance may lead to unintentional data exposure (e.g., sending sensitive data to the wrong recipient, gossiping about confidential health issues) or breaking security rules (downloading malicious files, clicking phishing links, etc.)

There are no different types of HIPAA compliance, but there are different categories of entities that need to be compliant:

• Covered entities, such as healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses. They have broader obligations and are directly responsible for implementing all the measures required by HIPAA Rules.
• Business associates that handle PHI while providing services to the covered entities. They sign an agreement with covered entities that describes the permitted use and disclosure of PHI and the responsibilities of both parties for HIPAA compliance.

HIPAA compliance can be challenging. The costs and efforts required to achieve compliance vary depending on the size and complexity of the organization. In any case, it means significant investments of money, time, and effort into policy design, security technology, employee training, and compliance assessments. However high the cost of compliance may be, the cost of non-compliance is always higher, as the consequences of a HIPAA breach may include heavy fines, reputational damage, and corrective actions imposed by the Office for Civil Rights or other enforcement agencies.

The severity of HIPAA violations is evaluated based on the scope of the violation, the harm caused to the patients, the organization's efforts to prevent, report, and remediate HIPAA breaches, and previous non-compliance episodes. Here's an example of a very serious violation: a large-scale health data breach resulting from a phishing attack that was not reported and remediated in due time by an organization that had already been fined for unintentional patients' data exposure. This will be regarded as a Tier 4 violation (willful neglect, the incident was not rectified within 30 days), and the annual penalty may reach almost $2M.

First, it is important to remember that not all health information is PHI. For example, HIPAA doesn't cover appointment registers or employee health records. It also applies to properly de-identified health data that couldn't be linked to a specific individual. Second, there are cases when sharing PHI is justified. For example, if a patient requires access to their health information. It is fine if PHI is shared between healthcare providers engaged in treating the patient — if only the minimum necessary information is disclosed for legitimate purposes. For investigation purposes, law enforcement officials can access PHI.

To achieve overall HIPAA compliance, organizations must comply with:

• The Privacy Rule that sets restrictions for PHI use and disclosure.
• The Security Rule that outlines administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect ePHI: e.g., employee security training, risk assessments, data encryption, incident response and recovery procedures.
• The Breach Notification Rule describing how a company should report HIPAA breaches to the regulatory authorities.
• The Enforcement Rule outlining procedures and penalties related to non-compliance.
• The Omnibus Rule that introduces significant modifications to HIPAA requirements: e.g., a more detailed risk assessment process, additional security controls, and heavier penalties for non-compliance.