The problem with HIPAA compliance and security in general is that there are so many products and services on the market, how does one decide which are the right ones? Let’s not discuss a HIPAA security service (although we hope you choose HIPAA Secure Now!) but let’s look at after you have taken the first steps to HIPAA compliance. After you have performed the required HIPAA Risk Assessment you are faced with a lot of decisions on how to implement security.
For example, let’s say the Risk Assessment identified a few areas that require additional security measures to properly protect patient data. Below are a few areas that have been flagged:
- Patients emails may contain electronic protected health information (ePHI) and should be encrypted
- Laptops contain ePHI and should be encrypted
- There is no disaster recovery in place to access patient information in the event your primary servers are destroyed
- Access logs of systems that contain ePHI are not being reviewed
Let’s look at the first area that was identified as a security concern which was email encryption. The questions that you may have include; what do I do to implement email encryption? How expensive is it? How complex is the solution? How do I train my employees to use it? Which are compatible with my email system?
A quick Google search on email encryption products returns 9,700,000 results. A scan of the first few pages reveals email encryption products from various vendors including: Symantec, Entrust, Proofpoint, Voltage, TrendMicro, Cisco, CenturionSoft, Sophos, IBM, SPAM Soap, McAfee, ZixCorp, and the list goes on and on.
What an organization needs is to partner with a company that can help them screen and implement security products. Having a Risk Assessment will help identify areas of concern but it is just as important to know which products will work best to provide cost effective security solutions. The solutions must be affordable and integrate together to provide seamless and easy to use security both from a network perspective as well as from an employee access and use perspective.
At HIPAA Secure Now! we have screened hundreds of products and have put together a security portfolio that can help customers implement cost effective security solutions. We understand the dynamics of healthcare organizations and have selected vendor solutions that are both affordable and easy to implement and manage. Our solutions range from email encryption, laptop / desktop encryption, offsite backup, disaster recovery solutions, log monitoring solutions, and many more. We have even worked with insurance companies that provide HIPAA insurance that covers the expense of HIPAA fines and security breaches.
Find out how we can help with taking the first steps to HIPAA compliance through our HIPAA Secure Now! service. Then work with us to implement security solutions to protect patient information and to achieve HIPAA compliance. At HIPAA Secure Now! we offer a complete solution to HIPAA compliance and patient information security. Contact us today to see how we can help you become HIPAA Secure Now!
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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