For the healthcare industry, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance must be factored into almost every facet of operations. This includes mobile messaging platforms. HIPAA requires healthcare providers and their technology partners to comply with strict security and privacy standards for Protected Health Information (PHI and ePHI) such as medical histories, test results and other sensitive patient information.
While there is a lot of complexity associated with HIPAA compliance, finding a mobile messaging solution that is the gold standard in compliance is easy – it’s NetSfere. NetSfere was designed from the ground up to facilitate full compliance with HIPAA regulatory standards and other global healthcare regulations. Offering robust security, reliable message delivery, unparalleled account controls and more, NetSfere is the most secure network in the market, providing the total compliance healthcare enterprises need to avoid costly fines and protect the bottom line.
Data breaches that lead to HIPAA violations and fines are unfortunately not a rarity. From January 2021 through July 2021, approximately 400 data breaches were reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights. That’s according to the HHS Office of Civil Rights’ HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool which posts health data breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. Of the breaches posted through July of this year an overwhelming majority - 290 or 72% - were hacking or IT incidents affecting millions of individuals.
These healthcare data breaches are expensive. Fines for HIPAA violations can reach up to $50,000 and can be issued for any violation of HIPAA rules. And the cost of healthcare data breaches is rising. According to IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report, “healthcare breaches cost the most by far, at $9.23 million per incident – a $2 million increase over the previous year.”
These staggering numbers highlight the bottom-line busting impact of HIPAA fines and other financial fallout from data breaches for healthcare organizations of all types and sizes. Along with the financial hit of fines, HIPAA infractions can lead to loss of patient trust and damage to brand reputation for healthcare enterprises. All of those factors make a compelling business case for healthcare enterprises to adopt a secure, HIPAA compliant mobile messaging platform like NetSfere.
NetSfere’s HIPAA compliant platform ensures the safety and integrity of patients’ health records and information through:
- High Level Encryption – NetSfere’s leading security algorithms support device-to-device encryption, protecting information during transmission. NetSfere’s platform features 256-bit level encryption and uses elliptical key exchange that scrambles messages as they are transmitted, unlocking them only once they’ve safely reached the receiver’s mobile device.
- Centralized Storage – NetSfere’s advanced archiving features provide secure, centralized repositories to house messages and documents sent between employees, meeting HIPAA requirements for a secure message storage center.
- Account Controls – NetSfere’s mobile messaging platform gives IT and account administrators total control over employee accounts. This includes abilities to archive messages, call up and delete message history and remove inactive accounts.
- Message Delivery Notifications – Advanced messaging solutions like NetSfere provide notifications of successful message delivery, as well as read receipts. NetSfere’s platform can also deliver secure SMS messages in the event users are out of Wi-Fi range.
All of these features combined with high-definition one-to-one and group voice calling, video streaming and screen sharing enable hospitals, medical practices and healthcare providers to optimize their communications processes without compromising sensitive medical information.
HIPAA Compliance is really a bottom-line issue for healthcare organizations. Protect the bottom line by going for the gold standard in mobile messaging solutions with NetSfere. NetSfere equips your healthcare enterprise with the administrative, physical and technical safeguards you need to fully comply with HIPAA.
Contact us to learn more about NetSfere’s HIPAA compliant advanced messaging technology for today’s healthcare industry.
These lessons learned call for strong security postures that build enterprise cyber resiliency – they call for a solution like NetSfere.