HIPAA Compliant Websites

HIPAA Compliant

If you are in a healthcare-oriented business, then you already know about the challenges of ensuring that your business is HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) compliant. Under HIPAA, it is a violation to disclose private patient healthcare information without authorization and that rule applies to unintentional disclosures as well as intentional ones.

Unfortunately, some of the innovations that have allowed other industries to rapidly expand to an electronic format have increased the risk of patient data breaches, rendering them unusable. So, it is important for healthcare-related businesses to have HIPAA compliance in mind when creating any of their services, especially their websites. Note: HIPAA Compliant forms will NOT send all submitted information directly to you. You will have to view private information via password.

Secure Valuable Traffic and Data

Using HIPAA Compliant Sites

There are several steps we can help you take to ensure that your website is HIPAA compliant. It starts with data security. If your data is not secure, it does not matter if you are following every other guideline for HIPAA compliance, because you have a duty to take reasonable steps to guard against accidental breaches. This means that you want to have an SSL-certified website, which just means that transmissions are encrypted and protected from third parties. However, SSL certification is only the first step you need to take to protect client data. You also need to backup client information, either with a local server or in the cloud. Wherever you choose to store client data, the storage should be encrypted, as well.

Protecting Important Data

Next, you need to take steps to protect information when it is in your office. While we like to think about offices as a singular unit, when it comes to healthcare information access to it should be restricted to people on a “need to know” basis to help secure the information from leaks. Only people that need access to patient information to do their jobs should have that information and every employee with access to patient information should sign a privacy agreement. This is not only true for employees, but also for any business associates or partners.

Finally, you need to have clear protocols established to handle client requests to remove their data from your databases, servers, and websites. Once a client leaves your practice, you should no longer be storing their medical information. The time frame on this can be difficult to master since Americans are notorious for neglecting their healthcare needs and often fail to inform healthcare providers when they are leaving for another provider.