With the increasing amount of personal data shared and stored online, protecting sensitive information is more critical than ever. Organizations must prioritize strong security to prevent breaches and unauthorized access.
One key framework for safeguarding healthcare data is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPAA ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of health information, setting strict guidelines for healthcare providers, insurers, and their partners.
In this post, we’ll explore HIPAA backup requirements and data security, which are essential for healthcare organizations to meet legal obligations and protect patient data.
First Things First: What Does HIPAA Stand for?
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Passed in 1996, it is a U.S. law designed to protect the privacy and security of individuals' health information, ensure health insurance portability, and reduce healthcare fraud and abuse.
HIPAA has two major components:
1. Privacy rule
This establishes national standards for the protection of health information (called Protected Health Information, or PHI). It governs how healthcare providers, insurers, and other covered entities handle, store, and share patient information, ensuring that patient data remains confidential and secure.
2. Security rule
This sets specific standards for securing electronic health records (EHRs) and other forms of health data. It requires healthcare organizations to implement safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic health information.
What is HIPAA Compliance and Why is it Important?
HIPAA compliance means adhering to the standards, requirements, and guidelines outlined in the HIPAA Administrative Simplification Regulations (45 CFR Parts 160, 162, and 164).
This includes ensuring the privacy and security of Protected Health Information (PHI) and following rules for how it is used and disclosed. Compliance also means protecting PHI from potential threats, even if those threats aren’t specifically addressed in the regulations.
Covered entities and business associates must take reasonable steps to safeguard PHI and prevent unauthorized access or breaches. This may sometimes involve going beyond the minimum standards set by the Department of Health and Human Services, depending on an organization’s specific activities and risks.
HIPAA compliance ensures that sensitive health information is protected, builds trust with patients, and helps avoid legal penalties. It’s crucial for maintaining confidentiality, improving security, and avoiding data breaches in healthcare operations.
Who is HIPAA Applicable To?
As mentioned above, HIPAA applicability can be divided into two main categories: covered entities and business associates.
Covered Entities refer to health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and providers that transmit health information electronically. However, there are exceptions, such as health plans offering excluded benefits, on-campus student health centers, and non-digital fax communications, which are not subject to HIPAA.
Business Associates are partners that handle PHI for a covered entity. They must comply with HIPAA’s security rule, breach notification, and relevant privacy rule provisions specified in a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
However, only partners that create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI are considered Business Associates. Those who don’t handle PHI are not subject to HIPAA.
HIPAA Industries
HIPAA affects various industries that handle PHI, with a particular focus on those within the healthcare sector. Key industries impacted include:
- Healthcare providers: This includes hospitals, doctors' offices, clinics, pharmacies, nursing homes, mental health professionals, and laboratories. These organizations must comply with HIPAA's privacy and security requirements when handling patient data.
- Health insurers: Health insurance companies, HMOs, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid must ensure the confidentiality and security of PHI they store and process for claims, billing, and patient management.
- Healthcare clearinghouses: These entities, such as billing and claims processors, manage the exchange of healthcare data between providers and insurers and must protect PHI in their systems.
- Business associates: This includes IT service providers, consultants, data archiving and storage companies, and vendors who handle PHI on behalf of healthcare entities. These organizations must sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) and comply with HIPAA requirements.
- Pharmaceutical companies: Drug manufacturers, clinical research organizations, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) must also comply with HIPAA when handling health data, especially in clinical trials and research.
- Technology providers: Vendors offering Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems, cloud storage, and medical devices that manage or store PHI are subject to HIPAA regulations.
- Government agencies: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and state health departments enforce HIPAA compliance and oversee its implementation.
- Legal and financial services: Attorneys, accountants, auditors, and financial service providers working with healthcare organizations must safeguard PHI during legal and financial processes.
Why Choosing a HIPAA-Compliant Data Storage Provider is Essential?
While HIPAA compliance is important across many industries, it is especially critical in data storage due to the sensitive nature of health data. These providers implement strict security measures like encryption, access controls, and audit logs, ensuring only authorized personnel can access sensitive data.
They also have disaster recovery plans and data retention policies to safeguard against data loss or breaches. By selecting a HIPAA-compliant provider, you minimize the risk of unauthorized access, stay compliant with regulations, and protect patient trust.
HIPAA Privacy Rule for Data Storage Companies
The Privacy Rule focuses on the protection of the privacy of individuals' health information and governs how PHI can be used and disclosed. While it primarily applies to covered entities (e.g., healthcare providers, health plans), it also applies to business associates like data storage companies, since they often handle PHI on behalf of covered entities.
- Access control and authorization:
Data storage companies must ensure that Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) is only accessible to authorized individuals. This means they must work with healthcare organizations to ensure only authorized users, like healthcare professionals or support staff, can access the stored health data online.
The company must implement proper technologies to authenticate users (such as usernames, passwords, or multi-factor authentication).
- Minimum necessary standard:
The privacy rule mandates that only the minimum necessary amount of ePHI is shared or disclosed for any given purpose. This means that when a data storage company retrieves or shares ePHI (e.g., providing data for a business associate), it should only provide what’s required for that specific function—no more.
- Notice of privacy practices:
Covered entities must provide a notice of privacy practices to patients, explaining how their health information may be used and shared. While data storage companies don’t typically have to provide this notice themselves, they must ensure that ePHI is used only in accordance with the terms outlined in these notices.
- Patient rights:
Patients have certain rights under the privacy rule, such as the right to access their ePHI, the right to request amendments, and the right to an accounting of disclosures. Data storage companies must facilitate these rights by ensuring they can retrieve, modify, or disclose the data as required by the covered entity (e.g., enabling patients to access their own health records through the covered entity).
- Breach notification:
If a breach of PHI occurs (e.g., unauthorized access or disclosure), the data storage company must inform the covered entity, and in turn, the covered entity must notify affected individuals and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as required by the breach notification rule.
HIPAA Security Rule: Securing ePHI
The security rule focuses on the ePHI. This rule is particularly important for data storage companies since they are primarily responsible for storing ePHI in digital formats. The security rule outlines the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards that must be put in place to protect ePHI from unauthorized access, alteration, destruction, or loss.
The Security Rule consists of three types of safeguards that data storage companies must implement to secure ePHI:
- Administrative safeguards:
Risk analysis and management: Data storage companies must conduct regular risk assessments to identify and address vulnerabilities to ePHI, including both internal and external threats.
Security policies and procedures: The company must implement written policies and procedures that outline how ePHI will be handled and protected. These policies should address employee roles, security incident response, and data breach notification procedures.
- Physical safeguards:
Physical access controls: Data storage companies must ensure that physical access to data centers, servers, and storage systems is restricted to authorized personnel only. This may include secure areas with locked doors, surveillance systems, and other physical barriers.
Workstation security: Computers and workstations where ePHI is accessed or processed should be located in secure areas to prevent unauthorized access. These workstations should be protected with physical security measures, such as locks and authentication tools.
Data disposal: When ePHI is no longer needed, data storage companies must ensure proper data disposal methods (e.g., data wiping or physical destruction of hard drives) to prevent unauthorized retrieval of information.
- Technical safeguards:
Encryption: ePHI must be encrypted both when stored on servers (at rest) and when transmitted across networks (in transit) to protect it from unauthorized access.
Data integrity: The company must ensure that ePHI is not altered or destroyed in an unauthorized way. This includes using hashing techniques, checksums, and data validation protocols to ensure data integrity.
Data backup and disaster recovery: Healthcare organizations must have secure, encrypted backups of PHI and a disaster recovery plan in place to restore systems and data quickly after an outage.
Privacy and Security Rule Compliance in Data Storage
Data storage companies need to ensure that they are meeting both the privacy rule and security rule requirements, typically through the following steps:
- Signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA): This contract between the data storage company and the covered entity (healthcare provider, insurance company, etc.) outlines responsibilities for complying with HIPAA. The BAA defines the rules around the storage, use, and access of ePHI.
- Access controls and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
Data storage companies must implement access controls to ensure only authorized personnel can access ePHI. MFA adds an extra security layer, reducing unauthorized access. - Data encryption: Encrypting ePHI during storage and transfer is a key requirement under the Security Rule to protect the data in case of unauthorized access or breaches.
- Routine audits: Data storage companies must regularly audit their systems and networks to ensure they are in compliance with HIPAA security standards and to check for vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
- Security risk management: They must have a comprehensive risk management program that includes periodic risk assessments, implementing mitigating controls for identified risks, and creating incident response plans in case of breaches.
- Employee training: Data storage companies should conduct continuous training for staff on HIPAA compliance, security protocols, and business continuity procedures to ensure everyone understands their role during an emergency.
HIPAA Compliance in Backup Space
As a business associate, Backup Space safeguards PHI by following the privacy and security requirements outlined in HIPAA and the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act. The service ensures that all PHI created, received, maintained, or transmitted on behalf of healthcare organizations is protected against unauthorized access and potential breaches.
Backup Space ensures HIPAA compliance requirements by using strong encryption, securing access controls, and by signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) held between Gmelius (the Google-certified company behind Backup Space) and the covered entity.
As one of the best Google Workspace backup solutions, it follows all necessary protocols to maintain data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, giving healthcare organizations confidence that their data is both secure and compliant.
Understanding HIPAA Violations with Examples
HIPAA Violations refer to any instances where organizations or individuals fail to comply with the standards set forth by HIPAA regarding the protection of Protected Health Information (PHI).
A HIPAA violation in cloud storage occurs when a healthcare organization stores PHI without proper security, like failing to implement encryption or access controls. For example, if a hospital stores patient records in the cloud without encrypting the data at rest and in transit, unauthorized access could lead to the theft of sensitive patient information.
Such a breach could result in a data leak, putting patients' personal and health information at risk. Violating HIPAA can lead to significant penalties, including fines, lawsuits, and reputation damage, depending on the severity of the violation. Fines include up to $1.5 million per year, and criminal penalties of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison.
Conclusion
Adhering to HIPAA compliance is crucial to ensuring the protection of PHI. With strict regulations in place, including data security and backup requirements, healthcare providers, insurers, and business associates need to implement robust safeguards to avoid data breaches and legal consequences.
Whether you’re using cloud storage, managing physical records, or handling ePHI, following HIPAA guidelines helps maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive health information. By ensuring your organization meets HIPAA’s requirements, you not only protect your patients’ data but also build trust and avoid the severe penalties that come with violations.
Investing in proper security measures, conducting regular risk assessments, and ensuring all partners and vendors comply with HIPAA standards are key steps toward safeguarding patient privacy and staying compliant in an increasingly digital world.
