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HIPAA Compliance in Telemedicine

Remote health monitoring and electronic medical records allow patients to receive quality care from the comfort of their own homes and enable physicians to coordinate treatment plans with other specialty providers. 

Still, privacy concerns remain, and these worries are justified. With so many malicious actors trying to compromise individuals’ data, patients have every right to be concerned when entrusting their sensitive health information to a physician or healthcare facility.

Kaiser Family Foundation study

Younger adults ages 18 to 29 are typically less worried about privacy than other age groups. More than half of adults in older age groups were “very” or “somewhat” concerned — the most concerned being those aged 50 to 64.

Choosing a HIPAA-compliant telehealth vendor is the first step to ensuring safe patient care and secure patient health records. In this article, we’ll highlight the importance of HIPAA compliance and dive deeper into telehealth appointment security.

What is HIPAA compliance? 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that specifies industry-wide security standards and rules for protecting patient medical data from disclosure and fraud when there is not patient permission (informed consent). 

These criteria address all medical data management, from healthcare plans to data privacy assessments, and should be applied to all healthcare industry players with access to patient health data to ensure its confidentiality and integrity.

The key pillars of HIPAA requirements on telemedicine include:

  • patient health data security
  • encryption measures to protect patient health data
  • data storage, transmission, and documentation methods

Explaining the HIPAA Privacy and HIPAA Security Rules

The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets the national standard for patients’ privacy and private information rights.

The Privacy Rule was established by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in order to enforce HIPAA requirements. The industry-wide framework handles protected health information (PHI) use, specifying how healthcare providers and clinical staff can and cannot disclose, store, transfer, and share medical information and how to protect medical data. 

It doesn’t cover how patient data is transmitted — digitally or manually. Patient data that fall under the Privacy Rule and must be protected include:

  • any previous, existing, and future notes on patient cognitive and physical conditions
  • medical records and histories
  • patient billing records

The Privacy Rule states that only information needed for patient care can be shared and used by physicians.

The HIPAA Security Rule aims to safeguard electronic patient health information (ePHI).

The HIPAA Security Rule covers everything that affects the safety of electronic medical information, such as computers and physical security for a facility’s systems, devices, and other medical equipment. 

Let’s highlight the Security Rule's three layers of protection:

  1. Physical safeguards protect the technology and equipment used for patient care.
  2. Administrative safeguards cover a healthcare organization's policies and procedures to maintain the security standards of ePHI. 
  3. Technical safeguards address everything related to protecting technology that stores and communicates electronic patient health information. Technical safeguards may include essential cybersecurity measures, device encryption, network security, etc. 

HIPAA requirements and telehealth 

Virtual appointments with patients, including sharing images and files, need to meet safety standards identical to in-person appointments to ensure the proper level of confidentiality and patient health data safety.

Healthcare providers should protect communication channels used for patient care to mitigate the risk of patient health data exposures.

Adhering to HIPAA guidelines on telemedicine means physicians must utilize HIPAA-compliant telehealth tools and software and use only those communication touchpoints that comply with HIPAA guidelines on telehealth.

The HIPAA guidelines on telemedicine lie within the HIPAA Security Rule and say that:

  • Only authorized users should have access to ePHI
  • The data that is electronically transmitted must be fully encrypted
  • The technology vendor should enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
  • The communication system between a patient and healthcare provider must be secure, and no third party can access the ePHI during remote care
  • Communication systems need to be monitored and controlled to avoid unexpected or malicious data breaches

Third-party data storage and Business Associate Agreements

In remote healthcare settings, patient health information, such as MRI copies or x-ray images, is stored outside the physician’s office, usually online by a third party. These third-party companies may use this information for billing and insurance documentation. Also, health data and medical prescriptions for patients can be sent in and out through a third-party provider's email or stored in their cloud server.

When physicians create ePHI, this data is saved on third-party systems. To comply with HIPAA regulations, your healthcare facility should cooperate only with third-party vendors that can guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of patient information.

To confirm this, both your organization and your Business Associate should enter into a Business Associate Agreement — a legal contract that outlines the responsibilities of every party who has access to and can share and keep patient health data.

Business Associate Agreement (BAA) definition

A HIPAA BAA is the most practical way to protect your healthcare facility in case your vendor commits a violation.

What is required in a Business Associate Agreement?

Why you shouldn't use non-HIPAA-compliant tools for remote patient care 

Let's say you use Zoom video conferencing (the basic plan), Skype, or email to communicate with patients and provide remote healthcare services. 

Since these service providers can have copies of patient health data held on their servers, your facility should have a BAA with these vendors to comply with HIPAA requirements on telemedicine. 

However, these providers might not enter into BAAs and thus would lack the HIPAA security measures to guarantee patient health data security.

In this case, the healthcare organization would be the only entity responsible if a data breach or unauthorized access to patient health data occured.

For example, Zoom users can save personal recordings in their preferred cloud service without creating a password, leading to potential sensitive data exposures. Furthermore, cyberhackers can easily join a Zoom meeting at any time and disrupt the appointment with unacceptable content, videos, or images displayed on a patient or physician's screen. 

To comply with HIPAA requirements, healthcare providers should not use insecure communication channels, such as Skype or Zoom One, for remote patient treatment. 

Top 4 recommendations for secure virtual care

Check out some valuable recommendations for healthcare providers on how to maintain safe patient virtual care.

#1 Keep your hard drives encrypted

By encrypting your clinical staff’s hard drives, you mitigate data theft and disclosure risks by unauthorized users. Encryption reduces the likelihood that an online hacker could access and steal data stored on work-related devices.

Furthermore, remind your clinical personnel to keep their devices off while out of the office. 

#2 Use an additional authentication layer

Passwords can be a lucrative target for cybercriminals. Leveraging an additional layer of authentication provides extra security and helps block unauthorized log-in attempts into your accounts.

The authentication requirement should be unique to a patient, such as a fingerprint or text message with a code, to make it tricky for frauds to hack credentials and log in to the system. 

#3 Choose the right video conferencing tool

HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platforms enable healthcare providers to provide secure video appointments with the same level of quality and security as face-to-face visits.

Check your telehealth platform’s security settings to confirm it allows encryption and doesn’t require patients and healthcare providers to download and install extra software or tools. 

For example, with ExpertBox, physicians can use an in-built chat with encrypted messages to communicate with patients without the risk of compromising patient health data.

#4 Use secure messaging

A secure messaging solution allows physicians to support their patients anytime and anywhere, communicate with each other, and securely share patient information to facilitate diagnoses and improve the quality of treatment.

HIPAA compliance and patients' physical security 

Patients agree that they understand potential telehealth privacy and security risks when they give their informed consent to participating in remote healthcare.

Patients should also be aware of the scope of their responsibilities, such as keeping their space private, avoiding disclosing health-related information to other people, and avoiding using tools and software that are not HIPAA-compliant. 

Using HIPAA-compliant clinic software ensures patients encounter minimal privacy and technical issues. For fraud prevention, physicians can provide secured video appointments and communicate with patients through chat via encrypted messages.

Your best choice for top-notch virtual care and patient privacy

HIPAA-compliant telehealth software helps you retain patients, reduce legal and data privacy risks, accelerate healthcare delivery, and improve the quality of medical services you provide. By using advanced clinic management software like ExpertBox, you ensure patient medical data integrity and fully comply with HIPAA requirements. 

Request a free consultation to discuss how you can provide top-notch virtual care in a HIPAA-compliant environment using ExpertBox.

FAQ
  • The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets the national standard for patients’ privacy and private information rights. The Rule requires particular safeguards to secure the confidentiality of health information and imposes conditions on the uses and disclosures of such data when there is not patient authorization.

  • The HIPAA Security Rule aims to safeguard electronic patient health information (ePHI). 

    The HIPAA Security Rule covers everything that affects the safety of electronic medical information, such as computers and physical security for a facility’s systems, devices, and other medical equipment.

  • Video-based appointments with patients, including storing images and files, need to meet safety standards identical to in-person appointments to ensure the proper level of confidentiality and patient data safety. The HIPAA guidelines on telemedicine lie within the HIPAA Security Rule and say that:

    • Only authorized users should have access to ePHI
    • The data that is electronically transmitted must be fully encrypted
    • The technology vendor should enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
    • The communication system between a patient and healthcare provider must be secure, and no third party can access the ePHI during remote care
    • Communication systems need to be monitored and controlled to avoid unexpected or malicious data breaches

    To follow HIPAA guidelines on telehealth, physicians must use HIPAA-compliant tools, software, and communication touchpoints.

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