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HIPAA Compliance

In 1996, the US Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It brought into existence for the first time, a set of generally accepted security standards and requirements for protecting health information. In 2009, the scope and depth of HIPAA was extended with the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. HIPAA and HITECH lay out strict standards governing information security and privacy. While HIPAA/HITECH may be a boon to the security of healthcare information, they also throw up a number of challenges for covered entities in the form of costs, tracking regulatory changes, extensive documentation, need for an enterprise-wide approach towards compliance management and many other challenges. To implement HIPAA requirements, a clear understanding of organizational risks and vulnerabilities is required. A siloed, ad hoc approach is not only inefficient but ineffective. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - Title II sets national standards for electronic health care transactions. The regulation requires security and privacy of health data during electronic data interchange in health care system. Companies providing health care plan, acting as clearing house for health plan or delivering health care services are identified as "Covered Entities" under the HIPAA regulation. Covered entities have to follow 45 CFR §160, §162, and §164 rules to be HIPAA complaint and have to ensure that their IT systems follow Privacy and Security rules in the regulation. The IT systems have to ensure privacy and security rule of protected health information (PHI) during transmission and maintenance of health information through electronic media. MetricStream Solution for HIPAA Compliance MetricStream provides a comprehensive framework to help organizations streamline and automate all aspects of HIPAA/HITECH compliance. It helps streamline all aspects of HIPAA compliance such as preparing policies and procedures, assessing and analyzing risks, managing audits, identifying gaps and remedying issues. The solution also enables covered entities to integrate all compliance regulations on a single platform instead of managing them in separate initiatives. A centralized structure can be maintained of the overall compliance hierarchy including processes and assets in scope, risks, controls, policies and procedures and reporting requirements. MetricStream offers a comprehensive HIPAA compliance Software for health care industry to Implement popular IT governance frameworks for confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information Comply with Privacy and Security HIPAA rule (45 CFR § 164.304) by adopting control based architecture for administrative, physical and technical safeguards Understand and define the information risk universe for PHI Determine confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements of PHI Define and implement required controls Develop enforcement, monitoring, and response mechanisms of controls through risk assessment, auditing and incident management Generate reports for HIPAA compliance Achieve cost saving and achieve efficiency in IT GRC program by easily integrating with emerging frameworks and regulations in common GRC platform The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST CSF) Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Downloads Solution Brief: HIPAA/HITECH Compliance Solution Brief: IT GRC - Enhancing Technology Capabilities Insight: IT BCP and DR Insight: New Compliance Challenges for the Healthcare Industry Featured Recorded Webinar: Are You Prepared for HIPAA Audits? Expert Speaker: Jim Sheldon-Dean Founder and Director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC Analyst Research Access a complimentary copy of Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk & Compliance Platforms, 2011 to get an up-to-date view of the GRC platform landscape. July 2011 \| Read Report Download a complimentary copy of The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Governance, Risk, And Compliance Platforms, Q4 2011 November 2011 \| Download Report

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On Demand Webinars

Breach of HIPAA: Impact on the Healthcare Industry

Minimize IT Risks through Automation of IT GRC Process

MetricStream Solution for HIPAA Compliance