The Importance Of HIPAA Compliance

Technology has evolved and is in use in almost all the industries. Without proper technology or not adapting to new technologies, industries or companies even fail to stand in the competition. Healthcare also has the same fate. But also, the data from healthcare is more private and security is the main concern. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliances come into play here in governing the wireless networks in hospitals and wireless devices used.

CIOs’ in healthcare are in a situation where they are caught between technology and regulations. Demanding patients and increasing usage of wireless medical devices require wireless networks and hospitals have to open up for them. On the other hand, rules for HIPAA privacy compliance is tighter and it is necessary to lock down the network with encryption and even more secure access controls. They do not want to find their hospital name on a government’s website for a data breach.

The security mechanism is very important in this world filled with technology and data. Patient’s information must be secured and if the data is leaked and it reaches underground economy, it will become impossible to track the source. Smaller practices use EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system. There is also a myth “selecting HIPAA compliant software meaning it constitutes their
Usually, in HIPAA, staff members are expected to work on compliance without understanding what they are or they do not have basic training or skills to pull it off. Few measures that must be taken for HIPAA compliance and security in hospitals are, understanding the HIPAA requirements and properly formulating a compliance plan, implementing proper and secured practices on hospital networks, providing proper training to employees about the policies and procedures to follow and monitoring system logs very often to ensure the safety of the