The HIPAA Security Rule & How to Prevent Vulnerabilities

To start, facilities should prioritize knowing the requirements of the six main sections of the HIPAA Security Rule…

1. Security Standards: The general requirements all facilities must follow. This first section establishes strategy flexibility, identifies standards and implementation specifications, outlines decisions a covered entity must make regarding addressable implementation specifications, and requires maintenance of security measures to continue reasonable and appropriate protection of EPHI.
2. Administrative Safeguards: The “administrative actions, policies, and procedures to manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect EPHI and to manage the conduct of the covered entity's workforce in relation to the protection of that information.”
3. Physical Safeguards: The “physical measures, policies, and procedures that protect a covered entity's electronic information systems and related buildings and equipment, from natural and environmental hazards, and unauthorized intrusion.”
4. Technical Safeguards: The “technology and the policy and procedures for its use that protect electronic protected health information and control access to it.”
5. Organizational Requirements: The “standards for business associate contracts and other arrangements, including memoranda of understanding between a covered entity and a business associate when both entities are government organizations and requirements for group health plans.”
6. Policies, Procedures & Documentation Requirements: The “implementation of reasonable and appropriate policies and procedures to comply with the standards, implementation specifications and other requirements of the Security Rule; maintenance of written (which may be electronic) documentation and/or records that includes policies, procedures, actions, activities, or assessments required by the Security Rule; and retention, availability, and update requirements related to the documentation.”

Vulnerability Assessments & How to Help Ensure Compliance

The HIPAA Security Rule helps enforce effective risk management to protect EPHI. However, the challenge remains: how do administrators ensure there are zero security holes and that every single device is HIPAA compliant?

Vulnerability Assessments provide the knowledge to understand and respond to the latest cyber threats. Healthcare administrators can audit information systems, assess remediation plans, and acknowledge ongoing security compliance using enterprise-grade vulnerability assessments deployed from a global cloud management console by utilizing infrastructure scans through the secure, convenient CES portal. Once evaluations are concluded, teams can view technical and executive reports within the secure portal.