Are You HIPAA Compliant?

Earlier this year medical records of 4.5 million patients were stolen from Community Health Systems (CHS) by a sophisticated group of Chinese hackers. According to the Washington Post the names, birth dates, telephone numbers, and social security numbers of patients were copied and transferred from the company's systems. This information has been protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) for the last decade. As required by federal law CHS notified all impacted patients and provided them with free identity theft services. The company’s liability insurance was expected to absorb the major financial impacts of the data breach. Their mandated Security and Exchange Commission Filing stating the consequences of the breach was published on August 18 and can be found here.The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires all companies contributing to healthcare services to protect patient’s personal health records with strict security and data encryption measures. Companies that suffer a data breach due to relaxed security measures can be found in violation of federal law. Penalties are strict. Significant fines that can jeopardize a company's financial standing and reputation are charged per incident. According to the FBI, the digitization of medical records has encouraged hackers to increasingly target healthcare companies. Strong security measures that align with strict HIPAA regulations are now required of all healthcare providers.

Fortunately, Giva makes HIPAA compliance very easy for our customers. The data center, hardware and software infrastructure of Giva's cloud help desk & customer service software meet the very strict HIPAA compliance regulations. Click on: 7 Key Elements of Giva's HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Help Desk Software for Electronic Health & Medical Records.