Testing for HIPAA Compliance

Detailed Explanation of HIPAA Compliance

In the healthcare industry, companies and providers must be in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. It’s critical that providers follow HIPAA regulations, as not being in compliance can land a provider in serious legal trouble.

Specific Rules and Requirements of HIPAA Compliance

While the goal of HIPAA regulations is to protect patient data, there are specific rules an organization must follow to be in compliance.

The HIPAA privacy rule sets the standard for securing patient health information (PHI), requiring organizations to maintain policies and processes to protect PHI. This can include limiting visibility to patient data to authorized users, including healthcare providers and the patients themselves. The HIPAA privacy rule also gives patients access to update their own health data and request changes with the healthcare organization.

The HIPAA security rule sets the standard for securing electronic protected health information (ePHI). There are security measures that healthcare organizations must implement to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of ePHI through access controls, audit controls, and data encryption. The HIPAA security rule also requires organizations to conduct regular security testing and vulnerability scanning to perform a data risk analysis.

The HIPAA enforcement rule sets the standard for responding to HIPAA violations and the appropriate consequences based on the varying levels of severity. Along with a detailed outline of violations, organizations are provided with extensive HIPAA educational materials and guidelines, ensuring they are equipped to follow regulations.

The HIPAA breach notification rule sets the standard for how healthcare organizations must respond when there is a data breach involving unsecured PHI. This rule requires organizations to promptly investigate and report unauthorized access or disclosure of PHI and ePHI to impacted parties. The parties the organization is required to notify include the affected patients, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and occasionally the media, based on the severity of the breach.

Protected Health Information (PHI) Under HIPAA

Under the HIPAA privacy rule, all individually identifiable health information stored or transmitted by an organization or provider is considered protected health information (PHI). PHI can include demographic information, such as:

• A patient’s past, present, or future physical health condition

• A patient’s past, present, or future mental health condition

• The healthcare services provided to the patient

• The past, present, or future payment for the healthcare services provided to the patient

PHI also includes data that identifies the patient, including common identifiers like a patient’s name, address, date of birth, and social security number.

Importance of HIPAA in Healthcare

Securing sensitive data in the healthcare industry has been a priority for a long time, but has become more prominent as healthcare technology advances. Today, more patients are having virtual appointments and communicating with their provider over secure messaging. With virtual healthcare services and patient medical records being managed and stored electronically, HIPAA is more important than ever.

HIPAA regulations ensure healthcare software systems are being built with patient privacy and data security in mind. These security features can include multi-factor authentication, data encryption keys, user access management, and network firewalls. They can also include using blockchain technology for storing and transmitting information, safeguarding patient data.

Testing for HIPAA Compliance

Before a healthcare software solution can be pushed live, it must first go through multiple rounds of testing to ensure it works as intended. Experienced software development companies will also be prepared totest the software system for HIPAA compliance, including data privacy and security measures.

Identifying the Need for HIPAA Testing

Before building out a testing plan, the software development company will help determine if the software solution requires HIPAA testing. If there is any form of patient data being stored or transmitted at any point in the user workflows, then there should be HIPAA and security testing performed prior to completing the project.

Based on the type of healthcare software and the managed data, HIPAA testing can include:

• Penetration testing

• Security controls testing

• Data encryption testing

• Audit trail testing

• User authentication and controls testing

Determining the healthcare software data requirements will indicate how much HIPAA compliance testing early on in the software development project.

Compliance Testing Methods and Protocols

HIPAA compliance software testing focuses on data security and ensures that the software systems meet the HIPAA requirements.

User controls testing can include testing multi-factor authentication, verifying user access roles properly limit data access, and ensuring users get locked out after failed login attempts. These can also apply to security controls testing, including the ability for administrative users to manage and limit user access to sensitive patient data.

Healthcare software must go through various rounds of penetration testing to identify where the data security can be strengthened and ensure the breach notification system works as expected. For example, if a malicious entity breaches the database and gains access to sensitive data, then the software system should immediately notify designated users.

When dealing with PHI, having a reliable and exhaustive auditing system is crucial. Audit controls can be built to log when users log into the system, when patient data is changed, and when users access patient data. Having a detailed audit trail is the key to protecting an organization, provider, or patient when issues arise later down the road.

Roles and Responsibilities in HIPAA Compliance Testing

The software development company building the healthcare software system will typically include a team of quality assurance testers who test the system based on the outlined HIPAA compliance requirements. The QA engineers will work closely with the software development team throughout the testing process to ensure all issues are resolved, and the final product matches the requirements.

However, the software development company may hire an external team to complete the penetration testing process. There are companies that specialize in penetration testing and are familiar with the HIPAA penetration testing requirements. As an external specialist, they are also more likely to know the innovative, new ways in which malicious parties are hacking into healthcare databases, ensuring a more-secure system.

Work With Geneca Today

Geneca has over 25 years of experience creating and maintaining high-quality, reliable custom software solutions. Our partners choose us because we:

• Understand software and business, including industry processes and regulations

• Use cutting-edge technology paired with trusted, evergreen tools

• Communicate changes, progress, and expectations through every step of the development process

• Honor your budget and timeline from the start

If you’re ready to test your software system for HIPAA compliance, contact us today!