How Safe is Accessing PHI from the Cloud?

Posted by mgsionline on November 19th, 2013

The rapid technological advancements have taken US healthcare to a whole new level. As a corollary to this statement, PHI (Patient Health Information) is stored and shared using sophisticated technologies like FTP servers, commercial cloud providers and more. Recently, the popularity of cloud computing has increased greatly that many Providers choose to store and access their confidential PHI from cloud servers. Using these servers, they can easily share PHI with outsourced medical billing companies for medical claims processing. However, is accessing and sharing of PHI from cloud safe and secure? Let us check it out:

HIPAA Compliance: We all know that the use and disclosure of PHI is restricted by the Privacy Rule as per HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) of 1996. Keeping this in mind, all electronic health record specialists have started building their cloud storage servers and software with HIPAA compliance. Therefore, Providers can share their PHI without worrying about security issues. The best part about cloud servers is that they make Electronic Health Records (EHR) affordable to smaller Healthcare Providers and Facilities.

More Compliance Requirements: In order to make storing, accessing and sharing of PHI more secure, electronic health record specialists aimed at making their cloud servers and software compliant to SOX, PCI, and SSAE 16 standards. These standards ensure easy encryption and decryption of confidential data with multi-level security.

IRP (Incident Response Plan): Nowadays, most Healthcare Providers expect their cloud storage providers develop an IRP, which thoroughly analyzes the privacy and security risks of sharing PHI to mitigate data breech. In response, many electronic health record specialists have started developing IRPs along with a secure cloud storage solution to earn the goodwill of their clients.

Service Legal Agreement: It is mandatory that a Healthcare Provider signs a Service Legal Agreement (SLA) with the cloud storage provider. The reason for signing such a security agreement is that it outlines the responsibilities and liabilities of the cloud storage provider.

The HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule: Under the new HIPAA rule, cloud storage providers are categorized as ‘Business Associates’. The rule further states that Business Associates are directly liable to mishaps that occur while creating, receiving, maintaining or transmitting PHI on behalf of a covered entity. It is also applicable to subcontractors, who create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI on behalf of Business Associates. Hence, signing a BAA (Business Associate Agreement) that encompasses all PHI safety standards has been made mandatory for subcontractors. This new rule has been implemented by several electronic health record specialists providing expert cloud storage solutions.

With all these safety measures in place, accessing PHI from cloud will be highly secure. Choosing the best outsourcing medical billing company is as important as finding the best cloud service provider. MGSI can be a best bet for your billing needs from the cloud!

About MGSI:

With more than 20 years of experience in handling intricate medical claims processing functions, MGSI has been one of the most reliable medical billing companies in the US. Based in Florida, this physician billing solutions providing company is compliant to HIPAA standards. For more details, log on to www.mgsionline.com.