Stop! You may have to think about this. Is there a need for your business to comply with the HIPAA Law? At the moment, you probably think it’s not applicable to your business. But take a closer look. You might think otherwise.
What Exactly Is HIPAA?
HIPAA is the acronym given for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This is a federal law that aims to standardize the protection and privacy of personal health information. Enacted on August 21, 1996, HIPAA establishes the national standards of protecting electronic health care information. This rule applies to both the “covered entity” and the “business associate.”
According to this article on Forbes.com, a “covered entity” can be a health plan, a health care clearinghouse, or maybe even a health care provider. Examples of a health plan are your HMOs, Medicaid, Medicare, and even your company health plans. It can also be an employer or a school that handles Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI covers the following:
- Conversation between a doctor and his patient
- Billing information of the patient
- Patient’s health insurance data on any company’s records and files
Enacted on August 21, 1996, HIPAA establishes the national standards of protecting electronic health care information. This rule applies to both the “covered entity” and the “business associate.”
A health care clearinghouse is an organization that collects data from a healthcare company. It processes the same data on a standardized format and sends it to another business entity. A good example of a health care clearinghouse is a company that provides billing services to health care companies.
Another good example of a health care clearinghouse is a community health management information system (CHMIS). This is an electronic system that archives data to be used in the assessment of insurance plans and health care providers. Your typical health providers are the pharmacists, surgeons, physicians, podiatrists, dentists, optometrists, nursing homes, laboratory technicians, clinics, and hospitals.
Now, take a look at what’s covered in under the “business associate.” According to Forbes.com, a “business associate” can either be an individual, a company, or an organization that has access to PHI. That individual, company, or organization can either be a subcontractor or a vendor.
Examples of “business associates” are external auditors, accountants, data storage companies, document shredding companies, medical equipment companies, consultants, electronic health information exchanges, data processing firms, data transmission providers, and medical transcription services.
As you cam see the both the “covered entities” and the “business associates” deal with various kinds of industries at some point. And if that’s not enough for you, PHI can cover all health data not necessarily stored in healthcare establishments.
A Good Look At Your Business
Now it’s time to take a good look at your business. Where are you now and where do you intend to go? Of course, you can only answer that. But do you need to comply with HIPAA in the long run? Again, only you can answer that.
Carbonite not only backs up your files online. It also eases the burden of being HIPAA-compliant. This is because Carbonite supports HIPAA compliance.
The good news is that you can make use of the services of Carbonite. Carbonite not only backs up your files online. It also eases the burden of being HIPAA-compliant. This is because Carbonite supports HIPAA compliance.
You can choose from the reasonably priced business plans of Carbonite. If you want to back up all the workstations of your employees, you can do so with the Carbonite Pro. You can forget about the zip drives. All you really need is Carbonite Pro for all the workstations and you’re good to go. You get automatic backup to the cloud. Your files are encrypted and are transmitted to the cloud with the use of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. And yes, the Carbonite Pro is HIPAA compliant.
If you want a more extensive backup for all your files, the Carbonite Server Backup is the right plan for your business. This provides support to your physical and virtual servers. The Carbonite Server Plan also supports Microsoft SOL Server (2014, 2012, 2008, 2005, and 2000), Microsoft Exchange Server (2013, 2010, 2007, and 2033), and Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online; to mention a few.
With the Carbonite Server Backup, all your files from the various live applications and databases mentioned are not just backed up online. They’re also locally backed up so you can easily access them right away. All files are also encrypted using the 129-bit encryption but you may opt to customize your own private key encryption using the AES 256. The transfer of all your files makes use of the SSL technology as well.
The Carbonite Pro Bundle Plan combines both the Pro and the Server Backup plans. This is the most reasonable business plan since it provides a wider capacity to back up limitless numbers of workstations and servers. And to top it all, it is HIPAA compliant as well.
At the moment, the HIPAA Law may not applicable to your business. But a closer look at both your business and the HIPAA Law, takes you to a point where you, too, will have to comply.
So now, take a good look at your business and see how you can benefit from Carbonite. You not only get the ultimate data protection. You also get to comply with a federal law that might just come in handy someday. Read also: Use an offer code for Carbonite to save your business some money
Better To Be Compliant Now Than Pay The Price
It’s no joke. According to this video, “HIPAA violations are serious business …” The video cites Rite Aid for paying a heavy fine for violating HIPAA. It paid the U.S. Department of Health a million dollars after throwing out prescription bottles with PHI into industrial trash containers.
At the moment, the HIPAA Law may not applicable to your business. But a closer look at both your business and the HIPAA Law, takes you to a point where you, too, will have to comply. It may not be now but surely, in the future. There will be more changes in the HIPAA Law and both the “covered entities” and “business associates” are bound to expand. You’re better off being compliant now.
Is your online backup solution HIPAA compliant?
Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate
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Backing up in various devices would definitely compromise the data privacy of our clients. Carbonite is the best way we can back up our files and at the same time, protect the confidential information that we have collected.
Thank you! Your article just validates the fact that we did the right thing by choosing Carbonite.
You’re right! It won’t be long until we’re all required to be HIPAA compliant. Come to think of it, all organizations and establishments have some kind of health data on their employees. The day will come when that has to be protected by the law as well.