HIPAA compliant cloud storage has to meet the requirements set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It basically ensures the safety of healthcare patients in regards to their data that is stored on different servers that can be accessed from the internet. The HIPAA basically looks at how healthcare organizations and their associates, store, manage and share the personal health information of patients.
If you are a healthcare provider that offers cloud storage, then you need to understand the basics rules governing the HIPAA cloud storage. These cloud storage platforms, such as DropBox, and iCloud are in high demand as more people and businesses realize the many benefits they gain from them. Apart from bringing convenience into their lives, the ability to access data universally at any anytime is one of the best benefits you can get.
However, this doesn’t mean that all cloud-based services are HIPAA compliant. There are a particular set of rules that cloud storage providers who want to be HIPAA compliant have to meet. In order to help make it easier for you, we have decided to provide you with the basics of HIPAA compliance.
What is HIPAA Compliance?
The HIPAA compliance enforces four basic rules on all cloud storage service providers. These four rules are as follows:
- The privacy rule
- The security rule
- The enforcement rule
- The breach and notification rule
Apart from those rules, the HIPAA compliance also sets three basic requirements that determine how personal health information is accessed, stored, transmitted, shared, and more.
HIPAA’s Three Requirements
The following are the three basic requirements that HIPAA places on all cloud storage service providers:
Administrative Safeguards
All healthcare organizations need to have certain procedures and policies that ensure proper oversight, training, and management of staff that is in charge of or manages the personal health information of patients.
Technical Safeguards
The technical safeguards have been set in place for system infrastructure, which cover things such as data storage, audit controls, and encryption.
Physical Safeguards
The physical safeguards are about physical servers, and whether they can secure data properly. It covers access to servers, failure requirements, data redundancy, and more.
The four rules of HIPAA along with their three requirements set the basis of the HIPAA compliance, and in order to qualify for it, cloud storage service providers have to meet all of them. It has become mandatory in some industries for businesses to meet HIPAA compliance, since cloud storage is fast growing as the leading form of storage for many businesses and healthcare providers. The HIPAA compliance rules can be applied to video conferencing, email, websites, and more.
