If you work in the healthcare industry, you’re already aware of the need for HIPAA compliance. Most clinical providers have processes in place to ensure HIPAA compliance in all applicable areas of their practice.
However, if you require video conferencing to deliver care, your technology solution must be consistent with the rules of HIPAA. How can you choose the best HIPAA compliant web conferencing? To help you address this question, allow us to break down our discussion into several key points:Understanding what HIPAA compliance actually means.Which companies and entities are affected by HIPAA compliance?HIPAA compliance in the digital era.Why is HIPAA video conferencing so important?How can you choose the best HIPAA compliant video conferencing?
Understanding What HIPAA Compliance Actually Means
In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, set the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. The law was particularly important within the context of the 2009 HITECH law, which facilitated the implementation of electronic health records (EHR) and the transition to digital patient data. Under HIPAA, all patient data became protected health information (PHI). HIPAA rules require healthcare providers to take steps to protect the flow of PHI between patients, providers, and payers. The goal of the law was to strike a balance between this flow of information while ensuring the privacy of patients.
Consequently, for companies who deal with protected health information, ensuring that the procedures they have in place are HIPAA compliant is vital.
Which Companies and Entities are Affected by HIPAA Compliance?
Healthcare is a patchwork of complex care delivery workflows, and HIPAA compliance affects most of these entities and providers.
For example, anyone who provides treatment, payment, or operations within a healthcare setting needs to ensure that their procedures and technologies are HIPAA compliant. From healthcare systems to hospitals and medical practices, as well as insurance payers, credit card companies, credit and collection agencies, and more, are all affected by and must strive for strict HIPAA compliance.
Any business associates who have access to patient information, as well as other entities like healthcare subcontractors, are also affected by HIPAA compliance. All of these organizations and individuals must take the necessary steps to protect PHI to comply with HIPAA rules.
Since HIPAA was signed into law, the healthcare delivery landscape has changed radically. The biggest change to HIPAA compliance has been the transition of healthcare organizations to digital technology. Paper charting is gone and PHI is now stored and transmitted electronically through the Internet. Even care delivery has transitioned to the cloud; telehealth, or clinical care delivered through a secure video conference is rising in popularity. How does HIPAA compliance work in the digital era? How can providers ensure HIPAA compliant video conferencing when serving their patients today?
HIPAA Compliance in the Digital Era
While specific HIPAA rules govern traditional in-office healthcare delivery, there is a subset of HIPAA particularly relevant in the digital era. Congress planned for the digital transition of healthcare PHI with the subset of the HIPAA legislation called the HIPAA Security Rule.
The HIPAA Security Rule governs the digital flow of data in healthcare delivery. Compliance with these rules requires any PHI created, received, maintained, or transmitted to remain confidential and protected. It requires healthcare providers, no matter their size, to ensure the data is safeguarded from breach or threat. Every employee that comes in contact with digital PHI must remain in compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule.
The problem is that cybersecurity continues to pose a real and danger for digital data. The HIPAA Journal says the typical rate of cyber breach on protected healthcare data is one incident per day in the United States. When you consider that each breach could affect hundreds or thousands of patient records and that each incident costs big money in HIPAA compliance fines, it’s clear that healthcare providers should be increasingly concerned about data security. Data breaches cost healthcare providers an average of $6.5 million annually — and those numbers are rising.
But the cost of one data breach goes far beyond HIPAA compliance fines. When healthcare consumer data is breached, the damage to the clinical provider’s reputation is also high.
It is for all these reasons that HIPAA secure video conferencing is so important to your clinical team. As healthcare providers increase their use of video conferencing to provide care, they must also exercise caution in selecting a HIPAA compliant video platform to ensure patient data is kept safe.
Why is HIPAA Video Conferencing So Important?
We live in an age where an increasing amount of patient data is stored and transmitted on digital systems. Even though this boosts efficiency and often increases healthcare outcomes within the industry, it certainly poses issues when it comes to protecting patient information. Despite the compelling case for digitization, the reality is that electronic data can be breached or leaked in a way that physical files cannot.
This is particularly true as an increasing number of healthcare providers are selecting virtual patient care delivery over the traditional office visit. Telehealth is normalizing for both patients and providers, with a number of benefits including lowered costs and increased convenience and access to care. But the use of video conferencing to provide care over the Internet requires healthcare practitioners to take steps to ensure HIPAA compliance.