The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a 1996 Federal law that restricts access to individuals’ private medical information. HIPAA is applicable to organizations that offer health plans, health care clearinghouses and any health care providers that transmit health information in electronic form. This includes government-owned institutions.

Complying with HIPAA

Adhering to HIPAA Title II is what most organizations mean when they refer to HIPAA compliance. Also known as the Administrative Simplification provisions, Title II includes the following HIPAA compliance requirements:

• National Provider Identifier Standard. All healthcare entities must have a unique 10-digit national provider identifier number, or NPI.
• Transactions and Code Sets Standards. A standardized mechanism for electronic data interchange (EDI) for processing insurance claims.
• HIPAA Privacy Rule. Officially known as the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, this rule establishes national standards to protect patient health information.
• HIPAA Security Rule: The Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information sets standards for patient data security.
• HIPAA Enforcement Rule. This rule establishes guidelines for investigations into HIPAA compliance violations.

Specifically, Blancco helps organizations comply with the HIPAA Privacy Rule and HIPAA Security Rule.
 

HIPAA Privacy Rule

The HIPAA Privacy Rule concerns “national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information”.¹ This Rule requires that organizations implement safeguards to protect patient data. Blancco’s suite of Data Eraser solutions are essential to enable organizations satisfy this requirement by erasing electronic records when they’re no longer needed to meet HIPPA compliance. For example, Blancco File Eraser allows organizations to go beyond file shredding with secure erasure of sensitive files/folders with integration and automation of rules. This cost-effective solution ensures the data are made unrecoverable to fully satisfy this requirement.
 

HIPAA Security Rule

The HIPAA Security Rule protects a subset of electronic information covered by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Security Rule refers to this information as “electronic protected health information” (e-PHI).

The Security Rule requires covered entities to maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards for protecting e-PHI. See the chart below to find out how Blancco can help address the HIPAA Security Rules…
 

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