Demonstrating HIPAA Compliance in Your Sensitive Content Communications

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes stringent privacy and security standards for protected health information (PHI). While perhaps best known in healthcare settings, HIPAA’s requirements extend to any organization that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits PHI. This includes non-healthcare entities such as human resources departments, business associates, contractors, and more that deal with employee medical data and insurance.

Failing to properly secure and control PHI according to HIPAA can lead to violations with severe consequences. Penalties can reach up to $1.5 million per year. Beyond fines, organizations also face reputational damage, legal fees, and other costs stemming from security incidents caused by improperly handled PHI.

HIPAA mandates detailed requirements surrounding PHI communication, storage, and access controls that all affected organizations must implement. This article examines key HIPAA compliance challenges relating to communications along with how the Kiteworks platform satisfies associated use cases.

HIPAA Communication Rules and Risks

The HIPAA Privacy Rule outlines specific requirements that healthcare organizations and their partners must follow when communicating PHI electronically or otherwise. First, patient consent is mandatory for sharing PHI for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations purposes. Any disclosures outside of these areas require additional patient authorization. Patients also have the right to request restrictions on how their PHI is used and shared.

Additionally, HIPAA requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to PHI during transmission and storage. Such safeguards include access controls, encryption, securing communications with credentials, and other measures based on risk analysis of an organization’s systems and workflows.

Various communication methods and channels carry inherent risks of improper or unauthorized PHI disclosure that HIPAA aims to address. Email provides convenience but poses significant risks as messages traverse multiple servers with copies stored in transit that could be hacked. Account compromises through phishing expose entire email archives. Misaddressed emails may accidentally disclose PHI.

Sharing files and collaborating without proper access controls enable unauthorized access to PHI, compromising confidentiality and violating HIPAA. Transmitting PHI without encryption makes it vulnerable to interception when shared across channels lacking appropriate security controls.

Fax communication seems antiquated but remains common in healthcare. Transmissions can be intercepted or routed incorrectly. There is no guarantee intended recipients receive faxes. Unattended documents left on fax machines are vulnerable.

Kiteworks Helps Organizations Demonstrate HIPAA Compliance

The Kiteworks platform provides granular control over PHI communications to help organizations demonstrate HIPAA compliance across key use cases, including:

1. Secure data transfer with encryption safeguards PHI not only during transit but also while at rest in storage repositories. Kiteworks ensures only authorized parties can access transferred PHI. Remote consultations become seamless via a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform for protected data sharing and collaboration that is critical for telehealth.
2. Research collaboration proceeds smoothly with controlled PHI access restricted to only authorized team members involved in a project. Sensitive data remains protected.
3. Secure communication channels with business associates, partners, patients, and other external entities prevent PHI leakage and unauthorized access, maintaining confidentiality.
4. Comprehensive activity logging provides detailed audit trails to demonstrate HIPAA compliance during regulatory assessments. Investigators can easily review detailed records of all PHI interactions.
5. PHI storage protection through encryption and access controls prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data stores both in transit and at rest. Data remains protected wherever it travels.
6. Large file sharing happens without size limitations while still maintaining stringent security protections around access controls, encryption, and more.
7. Ready access to reporting aids incident response and breach notifications to authorities and impacted individuals. Detailed logs support forensics.
8. Secure communication with patients and clients safeguards PHI exchanged via portals and other methods. Communications stay private.
9. Controlled collaboration environments allow secure PHI sharing with external partners who can access sensitive data in a protected manner.
10. Data loss prevention through layered encryption, access controls, permissions management, and real-time monitoring means PHI stays protected.
11. Secure PHI collection from patients, employees, and other sources has protected transmission to storage repositories. Integrity and privacy are maintained.
12. Granular access controls enable employee and partner access to only permitted PHI based on role and responsibilities. Need-to-know and least-privilege access is enforced.
13. Encrypted backup facilitates protected PHI recovery while preventing unauthorized restoration. Backup systems have safeguards against misuse.
14. Secure migration of PHI data stores during technology refreshes involves tight controls preventing exposure. Migrations stay compliant.
15. Control PHI access, encryption, and sharing to achieve compliance, avoid penalties, and build trust while producing audit logs demonstrating HIPAA adherence. With strong policies and technology, enterprises beyond healthcare can comply with HIPAA communication requirements and principles to manage risk and ensure sensitive data protection.

Comprehensive Governance—Tracking and Controls

Achieving comprehensive PHI privacy and security for holistic HIPAA compliance requires purpose-built policies and platforms tailored for regulated data communications. The Kiteworks content controls fabric provides a centralized solution for managing PHI communications across channels while satisfying HIPAA’s many use cases. With the right strategy and technology, organizations can reduce compliance burdens and risks while building patient trust.

Learn more about the Kiteworks-enabled Private Content Network here .