HIPAA compliance is a matter of ensuring the well-being and security of your data. First is that initial risk analysis which can paint a clearer picture of what threats may be facing your company at any given moment. Conducting such an analysis once every year helps you take a deeper look into the issues specifically related to HIPAA compliance and provides new insight into how you can protect yourself from risks or attacks.
A proper HIPAA audit helps mitigate some risk factors in a specific environment. For example, if the inventory document focuses on serving patients correctly, it would be better for the team first to identify and assess the requirements of healthcare business operations.
Because you’re not treating patients first, there’s a general “it/infrastructure” risk analysis and something called an asset audit about devices that could connect either directly to your cloud service or access directly to your client.
This includes everything from hardware to software and anything else connected to the internet. Any device that doesn’t pass HIPAA guidelines could be disastrous, so you want to make sure there isn’t anything in this category before starting up.
You won’t find any physical infrastructure hosting sensitive patient data because all of your online servers are in the cloud. This makes it necessary to reevaluate your specific AWS or Azure hosting services (per Amazon’s and Microsoft’s recommendations) for compliance with HIPAA standards, such as the requirement for encryption via a virtual private network.
It is important to ensure that you’re using their HIPAA-compliant versions of these services so that you can always be in line with government regulations regarding medical records and privacy concerns.
When adding HIPAA-compliant hosting to your office, it is important to upgrade from the regular subscription that most providers offer. A simple upgrade away from vendor-provided hosting is an additional layer of security when uploading sensitive data online instead of using FTP or e-mail.
Hosting HIPAA-compliant sites allows for increased flexibility when it comes down to moving a site between two different web hosts if you are unsatisfied with one provider.
One way to figure out your HIPAA compliant needs is by performing a thorough risk analysis first. A risk assessment will allow you to see all the instances where you might lack compliance and how it may affect you.
List down those pieces of information you have identified as critical and start with implementing solutions that effectively fill in those holes in your plan of action (related to HIPAA compliance), so it will no longer cause you any problems down the line.
So the ultimate recommendation to everybody is that if you’ve never completed a HIPAA risk analysis before (that’s where you have to begin because that has to be documented annually for the compliance program regardless), it’s probably a good idea to start there – with the HIPAA Risk Analysis.
While your business may not be required to develop one, it still makes sense to start here as a core step in creating your company’s HIPAA Compliance Program because this way, you’re going to have an understanding of what exactly needs to be followed when creating your HIPAA Compliance Plan which should then make it easier for you and help minimize any amount of stress or confusion caused by setting up a new policy!
Mindbowser ensures that all healthcare applications we develop obey HIPAA rules and regulations.
Read More: HIPAA Compliant Software Development
It is a prime reason that many technology companies are now considering the need for telemedicine app development.What Are Telemedicine Apps Benefits?There are a plethora of benefits for using and developing software for Healthcare.
If the backend infrastructure is weak and lacks security, it won’t take much time for hackers to breach the data.
And that’s the main reason why coders pay so much attention to database design during telemedicine app creation.How Telemedicine Apps Make Money?There are several models that are required for how to develop a telemedicine app in order to generate revenue from the usage.These models need to be thoroughly planned and strategized by the telemedicine app developers before they go ahead with the development process.The basic way through which these apps earn a profit is through the fees.
For instance, Doctor on Demand charges a fee of 25% from the patient for every successful appointment they make with the doctor.The scalable business model is crucial for your product growth.
Yet, the developers also should know what is your plan of monetization for a better technical design of your telemedicine app.It is estimated that Doctor on Demand made a revenue of 12 million dollars in the previous year.So to understand how to develop a telemedicine app and make money through it, let’s go ahead and study the models in detail.Subscription ModelOne of the basic ways through which telemedicine apps make money is through the monthly or annual payment plansAdvertisement ModelIn-app advertisements are the best way to generate high profits from your application.Reference ModelAnother way to earn money for the telemedicine apps is through references.
Franchising ModelThe sole purpose of building a telehealth app is that you can get medical services without physically going to the hospital.
To guarantee HIPAA compliance, businesses that deal with protected health information (PHI) must have the physical, network, and procedural security checks in place and implement them.When delivering healthcare communications on a large scale, it's all too easy to ignore compliance issues.
Staying compliant and avoiding multi-million dollar penalties is easier with a HIPAA compliant direct mail partner who offers automation and monitoring.What are the marketing requirements under HIPAA?While there are strict privacy regulations regarding PHI for marketing reasons, healthcare practitioners are allowed to utilize it when communicating about their products and services.This implies that a healthcare practitioner might advertise a new device or service to its patient database.
It's not a problem for a healthcare practitioner to send a flier about a new weight-loss program to all obese customers, even if the therapy they underwent was not for obesity.However, it is not acceptable to sell or transmit that same patient data with another company for marketing purposes, which takes us to the second, and arguably most crucial, element of the HIPAA standards for direct mail: data protection.
Most importantly, a HIPAA compliant direct mail must be aware of these laws.Understanding the information and delivery constraints imposed by HIPAAThe essential thing to understand about a direct mail campaign is what you can and cannot mail.
However, any information that may reveal a person's identity must not be included, such as:Identification information:Driver's licence number, IP addresses, photographs, birth date, social security numbers, biometrics, and addressContact information:Emails, contact numbers and addressesHealthcare information:record numbers, financial position, provider identities, treatment plans, and diagnosisYou may mail the following information:Correspondence like invoices, letters, and statementsInformation on various treatment choices or medical treatments that is educational.Benefits or coverage explanations (EOCs and EOBs)Notices about possible security breaches or workplace announcements in generalHealthcare organizations should not send via ordinary mail any health data.
It violates HIPAA and puts the receiver's privacy in danger if anyone other than the intended receiver opens the mail.
