Developing a safe HIPAA-compliant site for medical purposes
HIPAA is a federal law that establishes security and protection requirements for PHI. Every demographic data that may be used to recognize a patient inside a healthcare setting is considered PHI. Address, Name, birth date, contact information, email, and health records are just a few instances of PHI. Before creating a HIPAA-compliant website, let’s go over some HIPAA fundamentals.
All healthcare professionals and national healthcare suppliers who come into contact with PHI must comply with HIPAA. With HIPAA, providers are typically referred to as “covered entities,” while suppliers are “business associates.” Suppose you’re a dentistry office or a healthcare Tech company. In that case, you’ll need a HIPAA-compliant site to secure any PHI data you collect.
When is it necessary for a site to become HIPAA compliant?
The first step is to figure out what you need people to do when they come to your site. Would you like users to be capable of sending emails, participating in live chats, submitting forms, sharing files, or logging into a patient platform?
Once you’ve determined how a user would engage with your site, you could strive to ensure that those engagements lead to a user-friendly yet reliable experience by taking into account the following:
- On the hosted server, do you have PHI?
- Do you send any sort of PHI over the internet?
If you’re managing PHI on and via your site, be sure it’s HIPAA certified. So “basic” operations like making an appointment fall into this category.
How to Comply with HIPAA on Your Site
An excellent initial step is to use HIPAA-compliant online forms. These would guarantee that whatever PHI you gather is safely collected, preventing you from being subjected to the danger of an information leak.
The information gathered in such forms must be encrypted as well. HIPAA establishes particular encryption requirements for data in rest or motion. HIPAA encryption is a complex issue within itself.
In the modern age, it’s critical to operate a profitable healthcare firm. This covers both on-site and off-site information and PHI held on servers that are off-site. Let’s talk further regarding HIPAA encryption and how to secure personal details without jeopardizing your advertising initiatives.
The most crucial thing to keep in mind concerning HIPAA-compliant sites is that the information obtained should be kept safe and confidential during its usage, transfer, and storage. You’re probably completing a few essential elements of a successful HIPAA compliance framework by putting protections on your site designed to safeguard PHI.
Compliance Group’s HIPAA compliance provides your company with the resources it needs to fully comply with the legislation. As well as security standards to guide the development and deployment of HIPAA compatible sites.
Typical Issues in HIPAA-Compliant Sites
A failure to understand HIPAA-compliant website building guidelines might place healthcare firms in danger of a data leak and harsh fines. The following are among the most prevalent reasons that organizations’ sites fail to meet HIPAA requirements:
A site that does not have an SSL certification isn’t really HIPAA compliant
An SSL certification encrypts the connectivity between the user’s computer and your server. Preventing unauthorized parties from reading any data sent over that connection., a site must include this feature To be HIPAA compliant.
SSL certificates are procured, installed, and renewed for any site hosted via one of the HIPAA hosting services.
A Business Associate Agreement is required for HIPAA-compliant website creation
A BAA must be signed for a subcontractor to handle or store protected health information (PHI). Website development and designing companies are held responsible for all client PHI they obtain or manage via their work on HIPAA-compliant websites, as per a BAA.
Unless the developer has acquired a BAA, no work on a HIPAA-compliant site should then be started. Before any work begins on a project, you have to get a BAA signed with every one of your customers. A BAA is signed by each subcontractor or associate company that works with you on a website initiative.
Link Building Is Vital
There should be no connections on a HIPAA-compliant site to non-compliance with the regulations.
HIPAA-compliant platforms must only receive data from forms submitted by existing or potential patients once they hit the “submit” button. You should ensure that your mail server is likewise HIPAA-compliant should you use an inquiry form that sends inquiries to your mail. HIPAA compliant web design initiatives constantly take this into consideration.
HIPAA Compliance: How Can You Make Absolutely Sure Your Site Is Legal?
HIPAA requirements apply whenever a site is used to collect or transfer protected health information (PHI). Healthcare businesses must think about the following while developing a HIPAA-compliant site:
- Using multi-factor verification to provide secure user authentication.
- Web hosting services that are HIPAA-compliant should be used for safety reasons
- BAAs may be obtained by contracting with any outside person or organization that offers a service
- Encrypt emails under HIPAA regulations.
- All online forms should be encrypted.
- Utilizing an SSL certification to encrypt the website
- Make sure that PHI can be backed up, restored, and deleted.
Final thoughts on HIPAA-compliant sites
HIPAA-compliant standards assure security for everyone involved, including the hospital and its patients. HIPAA provides the patient with one of the most helpful tools for checking and updating their medical information in the event of a switch in physicians, or other service providers, such as hospitals.
Ensure that the PHI you gather, save, and send when developing a HIPAA-compliant site is safe. HIPAA compliance & patient safety are both ensured when you employ secure web forms. And also encrypted information to safeguard PHI on your site while also boosting your advertising goals.
