Does your PHI plan have a strong cybersecurity component?
HIPAA requires medical practices to use all available means to secure their protected health information (PHI).
Many practitioners don’t understand that this includes vendor selection. PHI is your responsibility. Should a data security issue arise with one of your software vendors, you may be held responsible if more preventative options were available. Learn more
Cyber threats have dramatically increased in number and sophistication in the past couple of years. Here are two ways you can reduce your PHI-compliance risk, keeping your medical practice as far from trouble as possible:
#1. Move to Cloud-Based Practice Management Software
In a typical medical office, PHI is everywhere, but one place it should never be is on your local servers—this provides an irresistible target for ransomware attacks.
Cloud solutions solve this by residing on secure networks like Amazon, Cisco or Google and by encrypting PHI behind multiple firewalls (for layered protection). Fortune 500 companies, major banks and financial systems, and infrastructure grids all use cloud computing because private data is better protected from attacks.
#2. Look for Vendors with SOC2 Certification
SOC2 is the gold standard in data security, measuring a vendor’s dedication to excellence in process monitoring, encryption control, intrusion detection, user access authentication, and disaster recovery. If a vendor has been awarded SOC2 certification, you can be sure they take security very seriously since they can protect both your most sensitive data (PHI) and your physician identity/practice financials.
Because vendors with SOC2 certification are available, the spirit of HIPAA mandates that practices seek them out to secure PHI and minimize the risk from today’s sophisticated threats.
Because data security is such a critical part of our mission to protect sensitive practice information, we’ve gone the extra mile to independently certify our SOC2® compliance. We believe that trust must be earned, and that this rigorous audit and certification process gives our doctors and larger clients that much more peace of mind as they partner with us into the future. Read more here.
