9 Prerequisites For HIPAA Compliant Hosting

Posted on Wednesday, January 16 2019 @ 9:42 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
The HIPAA act, as well as the HIPAA compliant servers, are two integral elements for professionals dealing with the medical domain. The act determines major protocols to protect the sensitive health-related information of the users which is called PHI (Protected Health Information). And, a server that follows all these guidelines is said to be in compliance with HIPAA.

These serves are mandatory for the professionals who are engaged in storing, accessing, displaying, reading or transferring any data that contains PHI. But to partner with a reliable HIPAA compliant cloud storage provider is a daunting task. In order to make it a bit easier, let's take a look at the nine major prerequisites which you should look for before taking a final call to work with a hosting partner.

1. SSL Certification
There must be SSL certification in order to protect any part of your website that deals with PHI. These certificates are essential for providing end to end encryption for the confidential data which has been accessed.

As per HIPAA norms in all the places where PHI is accessible to the users, it must be protected with SSL certification. This makes it inevitable for you to check whether your hosting solutions provider is having the certification in place.

2. Firewalls & Specific User Identification Credentials
In order to be in compliance with HIPAA, it's must to have firewalls that protect the server from being accessed by the people who are either unauthorized or malicious. For this, the hosting provider must have implemented firewalls at hardware, software, and application levels individually.

The primary role of these walls is to prevent hackers and other unauthorized employees from logging into the server with PHI by giving them blacklists or whitelists. Also, the access will be given only to those who have a specific username or recognition which is approved by the server.

An ideal HIPAA hosting solutions provider has an expert networking team for protecting your server with hardware firewalls and a support team to create software firewalls for shielding sensitive health-related information.

3. Multi-Factor Authentication For Strengthening Access Control
In order to be HIPAA compliant, it's mandatory to manage the passwords efficiently. You should look for hosting providers who use multi-factor authentication to keep the passwords secure. The majority of the providers use Google Authenticator which lets users have an app that they can use as a secondary verification alternative. This process requires users to use a regular password along with another verification credential such as the mobile device in order to provide them with permission for accessing the server. This method makes tougher for the hackers to gain unauthorized access to the server containing PHI.

4. Business Associate Agreement (BAA) For Specifying The Roles Of Your Business & The Hosting Company This agreement is essential so that to make sure that a hosting provider has access to the servers in order to keep up with them. Also, this agreement is extremely helpful in preventing unauthorized access to the PHI. The HIPAA BAA determines the roles of the hosting provider and identifies accountability for different parts of HIPAA compliance. This agreement describes what HIPAA related duties your business has to perform.

5. Encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) To Monitor Remote Access
The VPN channel is essential to control the remote access to the HIPAA server. Its main job is to protect the data entering into the funnel with an encrypted session that sustain only till the session is alive. Interception is the way to safeguard all the communication happened between the remote workstation and the HIPAA server.

6. Tracking Logins & Keeping A Proper Record Of The Maintenance
In order to be HIPAA compliant, it's essential to document each and every logins and maintenance. Every login which is done into the server with the purpose of maintenance or reviews should be tracked and kept in the form of a record. Also, this process should be implemented for keeping a track of repairs on physical servers.

7. Appropriate Data Clearance To Prevent The Hardware To Be Used In The Future To Recover PHI
To maintain HIPAA compliance, it's essential to adopt the right methods to get rid of the hardware. This process needs the data to be completely destroyed so that the hardware can't be used in the future to restore or recover any part of the PHI. The process of data demolition is generally called Integrity Control and should be properly documented as well as reviewed.

8. Offsite Backup To Cope Up With An Adversity
There must be an offsite backup for all the PHI which should be easily restored in an adverse situation. It will help you to recover all your data in a disaster or when your server experiences a breakdown. Also, this backup will ensure that none of your data will be lost in case it's restored.

9. Private Hosting To Avoid Unauthorized Access To The Server
The HIPAA hosting server which you will be using must be private that means it can't be used by any other enterprise or business. You can't afford to run it on shared hosting as it will be an open invitation to the unauthorized users to easily have access to the server. For this purpose, you require a private IP address. Also, the server needs to be in existence within a data centre which is in compliance with HIPAA.

These are the nine main prerequisites which will make your business HIPAA compliant. When dealing with confusion it's better to take professional help to ensure that your sensitive health-related information is secure and handled in compliance with HIPAA norms.

Author Bio:
Anubhuti Shrivastava is a content crafter at Arkenea, a custom software development company helping entrepreneurs and businesses build successful web and mobile apps. She is passionate about writing articles on topics related to design and the software development industry.