At the moment, the healthcare sector is one of the most innovative and promising. In the digital age, many healthcare service providers and their associates invest in cutting-edge solutions to outperform their competitors.
The exponential growth of internet solutions is incredible, but it has also imposed many before unheard-of threats. The majority of applications on smartphones do not function until the user enters their personal information into them.
The market for healthcare applications is exploding, and many healthcare IT solution providers are drawn to consider its scope. Many service providers are also adhering to HIPAA-compliant healthcare app standards when developing their solutions.
Here you can learn about HIPAA-compliant and how to make custom HIPAA software for your platform.
What is HIPAA compliant?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes the standard for safeguarding sensitive patient data. To ensure HIPAA compliance for healthcare the services that deal with protected health information (PHI) must have physical, network, and process security measures in place and adhere to them.
Furthermore, covered entities such as clinicians or anyone who treats the patient, payments, operations in the healthcare organization, and business associates who have access to patient records or assist with treatment, payment, or services must follow HIPAA.
Steps to create custom healthcare software HIPAA compliant
● Seek the advice of experts:
The entire process of developing HIPAA-compliant apps is complicated. So, if you do not have enough experience, do not try to meet all HIPAA requirements on your own. It is preferable to work with a reputable HIPAA-compliant healthcare software development company.
Getting help from experienced healthcare app developers for Compliant Application Development will simplify the task and help you prepare better. Hiring an expert is helpful for both startups and large healthcare organizations.
● Evaluate patient data:
Confidential patient data will be accessible to any healthcare institution. A mobile app can be used to store, share, and maintain this data. You must analyze and determine what falls under the purview of PHI. After that, consider what PHI data you can avoid storing or transmitting through your mobile app.
● Find third-party solutions with HIPAA compliant:
It is very expensive to provide HIPAA compliance for an app. In such cases, it is preferable to use HIPAA-compliant infrastructure and solutions rather than developing HIPAA-compliant mobile apps from scratch. This is known as IaaS, or infrastructure as a service.
● Encrypt all data that is transferred and stored.
You must use security practices to encrypt your patients’ sensitive information. To begin, ensure that there are no security breaches by employing various encryption and concealment levels. Also, remember to encrypt your stored data to prevent it from being stolen from a device.
● Security testing and upkeep for your app
It is always necessary to test your mobile app, especially after every upgrade. You should statistically and dynamically test your mobile app, and you should also seek expert advice to determine whether your documentation is up to date.
What should you consider when creating HIPAA-compliant custom healthcare software?
HIPAA encompasses all mHealth applications as well as custom software solutions designed for healthcare units. Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your software is HIPAA compliant.
Have a clear defined role:
Examine the software architecture and ensure that user roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Make certain that the data is only accessible to authorized users and that it is disposed of safely.
Minimal danger and exposure:
Limit the use and disclosure of PHI. Make certain that no one has access to, or can display or store, unnecessary data. Whenever possible, avoid storing cached PHI. They also have provisions for secure PHI data transmission and storage and data storage in the cloud. That usually means that any data collected in the cloud must also be HIPAA compliant for telemedicine app.
Data transmission and storage that is secure:
Data security through encryption methods aids in remaining HIPAA compliant. For encrypting and verifying data stored and transmitted, available tools and protocols must be used.
A security that is constantly validated
Check that the software logs the user out after a certain amount of inactivity. Furthermore, it should be ensured that push notifications containing PHI are never permitted. Avoid storing PHI in backups and highly vulnerable log files, particularly when using SD cards in Android devices.
What are the HIPAA rules?
✔ HIPAA privacy rule:
The HIPAA privacy rule addresses the protection of PHI. It states that patient records such as clinical history, diagnosis, medical records, payment for treatment, and other vital information must be safeguarded with advanced tools and technologies and should never make available to third parties.
It also shows the circumstances under which the records may be accessed without the patient’s permission. As a result, it includes limitations and patient rights that allow patients to review and request copies of their medical records. Patients can request relevant corrections if their data differs from ideal values.
✔ HIPAA security rule:
According to the HIPAA security rule, all entities with access to PHI, including covered entities, must conduct regular data breach risk assessments to ensure reliable PHI protection. It also includes security risk analysis guidelines.
It explains the PHI security requirements, including certain limitations and recommendations for health information security for detecting, correcting, and preventing any future security threats
✔ The HIPAA compliance rule:
The HIPAA enforcement rules cover investigation provisions and specific financial penalties in the event of a data breach. The penalty amount is determined by the number of medical records disclosed and the frequency of data breaches in a specific organization.
✔ The breach notification regulation:
It specifies various procedures for notifying individuals and authorities about a breach. If the data breach affects fewer people, the healthcare organization must notify all affected individuals within 60 days of the breach’s discovery. If there are more than 500 people involved, the media must be notified as well. Such cases must be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ office for civil rights within 60 days of the start of the news cycle, and they can report it through the OCR Breach reporting website.
✔ The omnibus regulation
The Omnibus rule was created to address all other areas that were not addressed by the previous rules. The rule specifies the changes to definitions, procedures, and compliance policies and expands the HIPAA checklist to include associated contractors and subcontractors of a healthcare organization.
Bottom line
Because of the severe penalties for HIPAA compliance violations, healthcare organizations invest aggressively in implementing a fully integrated IT system that adheres to HIPAA rules. The market for custom HIPAA compliant software is expanding, and many companies have entered it. Keeping this in mind, HIPAA software developers must stay up to date on the latest HIPAA law amendments. It will also assist them in lowering the cost of IT management solutions that they provide to organizations.