Since data breaches in the healthcare industry are more common than in any other industry, reaping the benefits of HIPAA-compliant telehealth platforms is essential for healthcare.
According to studies, since 2010, over 250 million people in the United States have been affected by health data breaches.
Healthcare is now more digital than it has ever been. This involves the preservation of medical records as well as the delivery of care. Similarly, whether deliberate or due to human error, there are more opportunities for breaches than ever before.
These risks are alarming, but what is the direct impact of a breach on healthcare providers? HIPAA imposes monetary and criminal penalties for violating the law’s privacy and security regulations.
Each breach could cost a healthcare facility up to $50,000 in fines. Individuals if found guilty might face fines of up to $250,000 and up to ten years in prison . These fines have the potential to reach millions of dollars in cases involving PHI in a substantial volume.
Even if a breach is inadvertent, the repercussions might be severe. A provider must also think about long-term consequences, such as damage to their reputation & a loss of patient trust
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a set of regulations that govern the proper use and sharing of protected health information (PHI).
HIPAA compliance entails providing software systems with the required security and implementation specifications to address and ensure the security and privacy of electronically protected health information (ePHI).
As security threats and data breaches become more common, it’s more important than ever to focus on developing HIPAA-compliant platforms.
Benefits of HIPAA Compliant telehealth Platforms
Secure Handling of Patient Data
Maintaining HIPAA compliance entails ensuring that sensitive data is handled appropriately across your firm.
How your protected health information (PHI) and electronically protected health information (ePHI) is accessed, stored, communicated, and shared, in particular, has a big impact on the risk of a breach or non-compliance issue.
In order to achieve and maintain HIPAA compliance, you must analyze how PHI moves through your systems, including knowing where it goes and who has access to it along the way.
Patients Trust
Large-scale data breaches, such as those observed in recent years, are becoming more common. These can have a significant negative impact on one’s reputation, with long-term consequences.
Maintaining patient trust over time necessitates HIPAA compliance and a strong data security infrastructure focused on patient data protection. The capacity to lessen danger of a data breach is one of the top advantages of HIPAA Compliant telehealth platforms. Furthermore, if a breach happens, it is likely to be less destructive.
External incursions such as data breaches are more likely to be detected sooner rather than later if you have a comprehensive data protection plan in place, reducing the breadth of the breach and the damage to your brand and reputation.
Saves Non-compliance Cost
Perhaps the single biggest advantage of obtaining and maintaining HIPAA compliance in your telehealth platform is the security in knowing you won’t be subject to remedial action over HIPAA violation.
Corrective action can take a variety of forms, but each one comes with a hefty monetary price tag. Even voluntary compliance initiatives might result in substantial costs, due to the work necessary to adapt your systems or processes to be compliant.
The costs of corrective action go well beyond merely a loss of income due to poor patient security. Your employees may require extensive training and retraining. Noncompliance with data storage, security, or transfer may necessitate a complete system redesign to bring you into compliance.