HIPAA Security Compliance - Protects Confidential Patient Health Information

By Jason Gaya

The stringent HIPAA security compliance norms, make it mandatory for the all the entities like hospitals, insurance providers, payers, billing services, insurance plans and medical personnel to strictly adhere to the laws relating to the safe transfer and storage of confidential patient health information. To achieve HIPAA security compliance it is necessary to implement few steps that have been categorized below:

Establish Physical Safeguards:

Computer networks play a crucial role in processing, storage and exchange of health records of patients between different health care entities. The physical access to crucial information can be safely managed by following these steps:

Creating and implementing a policy that authorizes only limited and trusted people to access the confidential patient health data.

Installing workstations and computers in safe areas of the facility and should be accessed by authorized personnel. Devices like computers, fax, printers and copiers should be placed in such a manner so that un authorized people cannot view patient health data.

All the computer programs should be protected by passwords and user ids to prevent, unauthorized access. The passwords should be securely managed so that unauthorised people cannot access them.

A security system should be in place so that it manages passwords efficiently and guarantees the safety of the patient health information whenever the staff members change positions or somebody leaves the organization.

All the storage devices, backup tapes and computer equipments should be accounted for and a proper log book should be maintained.

All paper documents that contain patient health information information, but not needed in the office should be shredded so that no body else can lay their hands on them.

Enhance Computer Network Security

It is necessary to maintain a proper record of the hardware and software installed in the facility, and understand their role in processing the patient health information, safely. Risk analysis should be done by creating a flow diagram of the work process so that loopholes in the system can be identified and removed. The computer network should be protected from virus attack or hacking by adopting some security measures mentioned below:

 Install appropriate gateway security, which has has capacity to deeply inspect the web content and filter out unwanted elements like a debilitating software and virus.

Anti virus solutions, digital signatures, firewalls should be in place to negate any online threat.

Proper encryption procedure should be followed, while sending out crucial health data from the organization network to the public network. The information should be strongly encrypted to protect it from unauthorized access or intercept.

The security system should continuously monitor the network for any suspicious activity and alert the administration about unwanted deviation from the standard procedure, by raising an alarm.

Educate Staff on HIPAA Security Compliance

A well trained staff is the backbone of the successful organization. It is of utmost importance for an organization to increase the awareness about the importance of safe handling of patient health information. It protects the healthcare facility from lawsuits due to noncompliance of HIPAA norms by an employee or employees. The organization should:

Provide staff access to HIPAA compliant training courses and seminars to increase their knowledge about HIPAA norms.

Provide training in password management and virus protection.

Train on how to efficiently maintain logs and audits.

Carry out periodic review of workers' status of HIPAA security compliance training and update regularly them regularly on latest developments to hone their skills in managing safely, the patient health information.

Provide training on managing the backup system as per contingency plan, in case of natural or manmade disaster with the aim to protect the health data and keep crucial operations, running.

Hence for an organization to achieve the requisite HIPAA security compliance, it is necessary to integrate smoothly the software, hardware and personnel so all of them work in a cohesive manner, ably guided by an administration that continuously monitors, provides feedback and places safeguards to ensure secure handling of the crucial health information of the patient.

HIPAA security compliance makes exchange and storage of patient health information very secure.

Jason Gaya

Read more on HIPAA at, [http://www.empowerbpo.com/]http://www.empowerbpo.com

Your Network Security Solution - 6 Steps to Evaluate Its Effectiveness

By Chip Epps

From computer viruses to hackers, with so many lurking security threats, it's important to have a solid network security solution in place. Whether your company has security software, a dedicated IT team to monitor suspicious activity, or both - threats keep evolving and adapting to their environment. That said, it would be in your best interest to have an integrated network security solution with all the modern tools you need to keep your system up and running smoothly.

So how can you assess your network security solution to see if it's time to update your security software or procedures? Here are 6 important aspects you should consider when evaluating your current network security.

1. Detection Accuracy. It's critical to have a network solution that can lower the amount of false positives/negatives and can also design policy controls that map to business processes. Make sure the solution can protect both structured and unstructured data as well as data ranging from simple credit card numbers and SSNs to source code and other proprietary information.

2. Enforcement Capabilities. Since most leaks are internal (or at least start out that way) it's important to have a network security solution with integrated enforcement capabilities for all data types, vectors, for both internal and external communications.

3. Policy Administration and Updating. Make sure your network security solution is able to set rules based on users, data, vector, and destination. It should be able to tie each of these variables together to say who can send what information where and how. Additionally, since these policies should be created based on regulatory compliance requirements and corporate governance, your network security solution should be automatically updating them as regulations change.

4. Manageability and Reporting. Security software should be easy to deploy and manage. Policy controls should be so easy to create and integrate with existing processes and tools that anyone (not just IT) can do it. Overall, your network security solution should have monitoring, prevention, reporting and enforcement all in one solution.

5. Cost of Ownership. Any solution should have a reasonable cost of ownership, meaning it should possess the ability to integrate with a broad range of security and networking solutions as well as a flexible deployment scheme. Additionally, the solution should have a measurable effectiveness, i.e. reporting. That is if a breach or leak does happen your solution should be able to classify the incident(s) and provide remediation in order to have a reasonable cost of ownership.

6. Vendor Viability. Unfortunately, the majority of available solutions are from start up companies with limited funds and product vision. Network security solutions from start up companies can sometimes lack the R&D, global sales and support services organizations need to have guaranteed, long term security for their network.  Additionally, due to consolidation in the security industry, these small vendors and 'boutique shops' are more likely to be acquired by a larger company at some point or even forced out of business eventually. The larger, publicly traded firms however, generally have a more substantial customer base, a well funded R&D program, and a global presence with strong sales and support. Therefore, purchasing solutions from a more viable vendor could mean better results and service in the long run.

For any business present in today's fast-paced, ever changing web environment, finding an integrated security solution that will take care of everything listed above is imperative. After you've evaluated your current security - begin researching security solutions (such as the Websense® Web Security Suite(TM) ) that will fill the gaps left open by traditional security software.

Chip Epps is the Senior Product Marketing Manager of Websense, Inc. He is responsible for providing strategic marketing direction for Websense products, and evangelizing the effectiveness of its security solutions including Websense Web Security Suite and Websense Express. He is also responsible for developing and directing go-to-market activity (working with local marketing teams and partners) to achieve planned business objectives and growth. Chip writes informational online articles sharing his knowledge and expertise in the fields of software, engineering, internet security and more. For more information about Websense, visit [http://www.Websense.com]Websense.com

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?