In telemedicine the importance of HIPPA compliance should never be underestimated. The sciencesoft’s guidelines will help care providers keep pace with the changing telemedicine technology while also conforming to HIPPA guidelines. 

HIPPA Compliance

HIPPA stands for “health insurance portability and accountability act” of 1996. It sets standards for protection of sensitive patient health information (PHI). If a care provider company is found to be ignoring the HIPPA, it may face heavy fines and loss of reputation.  

You can also check out informative articles about telemarketing software and types of cyberattacks and add to your knowledge reserves. 

Compliance Measures

Data Encryption

In telemedicine apps, data encryption is the most important and effective measure for HIPPA compliance. It not only prevents leakage of patient information but even if it’s leaked it will make sure that it is not used by another party. 

Data encryption protects the information by storing it on-premises or by transmitting it to a network. Some care providers may worry that data encryption will slow down their telemedicine applications. In-transit encryption will not affect the work of your application but the on-premises encryption may affect its performance in one way or another.  

Data Access

Data access measures are very important if the telemedicine app is to provide HIPPA compliant messaging, video consultation and other functions. Features such as user roles, automatic log off, access rights, user authentication, action permission etc will ensure safety of the apps. 

The leakage of PHI and user and patient privacy is protected by restricting access according to the roles of users. 

Audit

In order to provide HIPPA security via telemedicine apps is a continuous process. Consistent measures will ensure that the telehealth apps are safe to use and that the data is securely stored and transmitted.

 Some of these measures may include continuous telemedicine monitoring, vulnerability assessment and penetration assessment. These measures will make sure that the apps have high level security. 

Safe App

If you are using the services of a custom software development company for creation of telemedicine app then make sure that they deliver a safe app that complies with the HIPPA guidelines. In order to do that you first need to sign a business associate agreement (BAA) with the vendor. 

You must sign the BAA before deciding on the technical measures for HIPPA compliance because then the vendors will require PHI. After the signature of BAA the vendor will become responsible for the protection of PHI. But no matter what document you sign there is no guarantee that your vendor will provide you a HIPPA compliant app. That is why you should opt for a third party HIPPA compliance testing.    

Final Words

HIPPA compliance is a must for all telemedicine apps and systems. Non-compliance could lead to serious measures and fines. In this article we have discussed some measures that will make sure that the apps remain HIPPA compliant. 

Data encryption is the first measure you should keep in mind while designing your app. If you are going for a custom app made by a software development company then make sure that you get it tested for HIPPA compliance by a third party.