Table of Contents
- What is HIPAA Compliance?
- Why is HIPAA Compliance Important in the Healthcare Industry?
- HIPAA Compliance Checklist for Developers
- Conclusion
- Why Partner with TestingXperts for HIPAA Compliance Analysis?
The involvement of modern technologies such as AI, cloud computing, and big data in healthcare software and mobile application development is enabling convenience and enhanced efficiency in the patient care process. However, certain challenges and issues come with this digital transformation, such as ensuring sensitive patient information privacy and making HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance crucial.
According to statistics, data breaches are a growing concern in the healthcare sector. In 2023 alone, the healthcare sector witnessed various hacking incidents, accounting for 79.72% of data breaches. In most of the incidents, the top authorities of healthcare organisations were directly involved in 1/3rd of the breaches. It certainly raises concerns regarding robust cybersecurity measures and implementing strict HIPAA guidelines. The after-effects of HIPPA violations also involve substantial financial losses. Thus, it becomes necessary to conduct a thorough compliance analysis to ensure that the services associated with the healthcare sector comply with the rules and regulations of today’s digital age.
What is HIPAA Compliance?
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws are a list of federal regulatory standards that outline the secure use and disclosure of private health information in the US. In the UK, it is known as the Data Protection Act. It is a culture that healthcare organisations implement within their business structure to manage the security, privacy, and integrity of private health information. In addition, it also helps in protecting healthcare organisations against financial and legal penalties. The primary role of HIPAA laws is to:
• Digitally transform the workflow of the healthcare system
• Specify how PHI (Protected Health Information) is protected by the healthcare industries against theft and fraud
• Ensure the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of Electronic Protected Health Information, etc.
Why is HIPAA Compliance Important in the Healthcare Industry?
HIPAA offers numerous benefits to the healthcare industry transitioning from paper records to EHI (Electronic Health Information). It also streamlines the administrative healthcare process, ensures the security of PHI, and improves healthcare industry efficiency. By following the standards issued by HIPAA for recording health data and electronic transactions, medical institutes can ensure the secure and seamless transfer of electronic health information between health plans, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders. Patients also have control over their private information as they can decide whom to share the data. Following are the seven main components of HIPAA Compliance for the healthcare industry:
• Implement written policies, standards, and procedures of conduct
•Assign a dedicated compliance office and committee
•Provide training and education related to compliance
•Implementing lines of communication
•Conducting internal auditing and monitoring
•A proper response to detected violations and implementing immediate action
•Implementing regulations through transparent disciplinary guidelines
HIPPA Compliance Checklist for Developers
As medical technology advances at a rapid pace, ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations becomes increasingly crucial. Patients nowadays tend to electronically store their data, due to which PHI is getting transferred between multiple organisations. As a result, more businesses are facing the impact of HIPAA compliance. With the progress in medical software technology, databases are more prone to phishing attacks and other data breaches. Due to this, it is necessary to protect information more than ever. Following are the seven key points for the HIPAA checklist that developers or medical software developing organisations should keep in mind when developing medical software:
Understanding HIPPA-Covered Entities
When starting with the software development process, one must understand what ‘covered entities’ are. These are the organisations covered by HIPAA laws, meaning every database or organisation that transfers, stores, or accesses PHI will come under the influence of HIPAA regulations. Earlier, only healthcare providers, hospital groups and doctors’ offices were referred to as covered entities. But now, with the rise of healthcare technology and medical software development companies, the list of covered entities has grown rapidly.
Identify the category of a covered entity (Health plans, health providers, healthcare care clearinghouses) that the company fall under and summarise their responsibilities. Ensure the organisation follows all the regulations throughout the development and testing process.
Apply for HIPAA Security Rule
The developing and business analyst teams must know the security rules to develop software that follows the compliances and regulations. For example, how will they expose the data when working over the autocomplete feature? How will it capture and store the billing information? What about documenting and addressing the critical security issues to protect the company’s image?
HIPAA regulations have a list of security rules, referred to as administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, to protect the integrity of electronic PHI. One must adhere to the security rule requirements to ensure the development process is HIPAA compliant. Construct a security rule checklist and ensure the development teams understand and implement compliance requirements into the builds.
Have a HIPAA Data Breach Notification Rule
In this digital age, companies must implement the breach notification rule and have breach processes in place. HIPAA breach refers to the unauthorised access, disclosure or use of PHI under the Privacy Rule that jeopardises the privacy and security of the data. Once the breach is confirmed, a thorough HIPAA Data Breach Risk Assessment must be conducted. Its main purpose is to identify the extent of the breach and how to prevent it.
Also, according to the timeline of the Breach Notification Rule, it is necessary to report to the victims and relevant stakeholders within 60 days. Thus, ensuring the business is ready for breach notification becomes necessary. Although it is better to avoid breaches, companies should follow HIPAA regulations to avoid hefty fines.
Have a Thorough Grasp of Common HIPPA Violations
Security risks are associated with storing personal healthcare information; sometimes, those risks become a reality. It is important to understand the common HIPAA violations to prevent them from happening. Following are some common violations that development teams should know about.
• Unauthorised data access by third parties
• Phishing or hacking attacks
• Loss of devices containing PHI
• Poor disposal of PHI, and more.
Implementing Safety Measures to Prevent HIPAA Violations
It is crucial to implement appropriate measures after knowing the security risks that can affect a healthcare organisation. Although data security protocols can’t help in every breach, they would help prioritise patient data security. Technical, administrative, and physical are the three safety protocols for ensuring patient data security. It would benefit developers to ensure these safeguards are properly implemented from the beginning of the software development. This will ensure that the build runs seamlessly and restrict any unauthorised access. It, in turn, will produce a HIPAA-compliant solution.
Conducting HIPAA Risk Assessments
Some areas might need risk improvement when implementing safety measures. Regular risk assessments will help developers identify security loopholes within the development process. An in-depth analysis of data storage and handling can scrutinize processes and place security protocols in place. It will also help identify the areas vulnerable to potential breaches. After that, developers can put the best practices in place to mitigate the chances of potential damage.
Conclusion
In the rapidly evolving healthcare technology, HIPAA compliance ensures the privacy and security of patient data. Modern technologies like AI, ML, big data, and cloud computing are transforming the healthcare industry by improving patient care. On the other hand, these technologies also raise concerns regarding data protection. HIPAA guidelines are a crucial steppingstone for developers and organisations engaged in medical software development, mandating a complete understanding of security, breach notification, and privacy rules. Regular risk assessments and robust safety measures are essential to protect against potential violations and breaches. Ultimately, HIPAA compliance is a fundamental aspect of maintaining trust and integrity in healthcare technology, ensuring the protection of patient data while promoting innovation and efficiency in healthcare services.
Why Partner with TestingXperts for HIPAA Compliance Analysis?
Maintaining HIPPA compliance in the rapidly transforming healthcare industry is crucial to improving patient care quality. TestingXperts helps in compliance analysis to ensure that your healthcare software development practices are managed with the highest standards of precision and expertise. By partnering with TestingXperts, you get:
• Security/Auditing Compliance of Healthcare Applications, including HIPAA Compliance.
• Mobile Applications Testing for Doctors for e-signatures and Patient Medical Records.
• Application Integration Services for various Health Care Application Modules, third-party applications, and Insurance Providers.
• Bespoke Hospital Management Systems, CRMs, Clinic Management Applications, Patient Record Systems, and Electronic Medical Records Management Systems.
To know more, contact our QA experts now.
