Healthcare Security Compliance: Key Regulations and Best Practices (Global Guide)

Healthcare security compliance is an invaluable asset to all medical organisations around the globe. Therefore, healthcare providers need to make sure patient data is safe as a legal requirement and as a moral duty. The healthcare industry is coming under a growing number of sophisticated hacking attacks on patients’ private information every day. As such, organisations need to have effective systems in place to ensure the security of EHRs, without hampering the integrity of operations. Finally, healthcare security compliance is an important facilitator of continuous delivery of patient care and establishes patient trust.

What is Healthcare Security Compliance and Why Does HITRUST Healthcare Matter?

Healthcare security compliance involves technical, administrative and physical controls on patient data. Additionally, HITRUST healthcare certification has become one of the new frameworks that offers a unified approach that wraps HIPAA, NIST, ISO 27001, as well as PCI DSS under one roof. As a result, HITRUST healthcare compliance is now at the top of the agenda to meet the regulatory requirements and the third-party requirements. Therefore, healthcare organisations adopting HITRUST healthcare standards show their serious effort in protecting such sensitive information from a global perspective.

How Do Healthcare Cybersecurity Compliance and Healthcare Cybersecurity HIPAA Standards Work Together?

There are technical, administrative and physical safeguards that are needed for healthcare cybersecurity compliance. Further, the HIPAA security requirements mandate that covered entities protect electronic PHI using such measures as encryption, access controls, and auditing capabilities. In addition, there are citations for $137 to $68,928 per violation. Thus, organisations must have continuous monitoring systems and risk assessment. Furthermore, workers are trained on complying with healthcare cybersecurity HIPAA policies to prevent accidental breaches in the event of human error.

Conclusion

The reality faced by healthcare leaders today is balancing the delivery of patient care with more sophisticated cyber threats on sensitive medical data. Every healthcare organization of every size, processes information that criminals are actively seeking on darknet markets. When there is a healthcare security compliance lapse, there are consequences beyond regulatory fines – these issues have a direct impact on patient safety through delayed treatments and compromised medical records.

 

Healthcare cybersecurity HIPAA requirements exist because breaches cost organizations nearly $10 million on average (and impacts cascade through operational budgets, staffing resources, and patient trust for years to come). Organizations that treat healthcare security compliance as a check box instead of building block for operational necessity are at risk of what can be prevented. Conversely, healthcare systems that make the implementation of healthcare data security standards a strategic priority are finding that investment in security helps protect their revenue, minimize the costs of responding to incidents, and strengthen their position in the market with partners requiring HITRUST healthcare or SOC 2 healthcare certification.

Beyond compliance- achieving true cyber resilience in Healthcare

Healthcare cybersecurity compliance infrastructure needs to be provided with sensible budgets from healthcare executives, conduct periodic penetration testing to identify actual vulnerabilities, and train healthcare staff regularly regarding HIPAA healthcare cybersecurity protocols. Third-party vendor relationships require the same level of security attention – their compliance gaps will be organizational vulnerabilities. Most importantly, healthcare organizations need to understand that healthcare security compliance frameworks such as GDPR, NIST, ISO 27001, and PCI compliance healthcare standards are minimum baselines of security rather than end goals of security. The organizations that are truly protecting patient information go beyond the regulatory minimums by proactively hunting for threats, continually monitoring for additional threats, and incorporating threat intelligence into how the organization operates.

 

The path to success starts with the unvarnishing truth of the security posture of today. Qualysec provides health care organizations with objective vulnerability assessments of compliance gaps and actionable remediation paths. Organizations that are serious about safeguarding patient data should start engaging in dialogue with compliance experts that can help translate regulatory requirements into sustainable operating practices.