The healthcare industry has always been highly regulated, with a commitment to data privacy and security of patient medical records, but as data is increasingly stored on cloud platforms, it is more important than ever to protect this sensitive information from being breached.
The Regulatory Landscape in Healthcare
The past two decades have ushered in a healthcare environment that is highly regulated and constantly evolving due to emerging technological advancements (like the cloud and remote patient monitoring), sweeping policy changes, and above all, the pressing need for patient safety and privacy.
To navigate the complex regulatory landscape, medical professionals must stay informed, adopt proactive measures, and leverage specialized tools for regulatory management. By doing so, they can deliver confidential patient care, ensure compliance, and maintain operational efficiency. The consequences of non-compliance may include significant fines, legal action, and even reputational damage to private practices or large healthcare organizations.
Read on for ways to avoid unsecured data breaches and penalties for not following regulatory rules and regulations.
HIPAA
The most well-known U.S. healthcare regulation is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. This act provides two-fold protection, at both the privacy and security level, with standardized rules that govern individual medical records and other personal health information (PHI); while also requiring proper administrative, physical, and technical oversight.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive data protection law enacted by the European Union (EU) in 2018. Its goal is to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA), providing more control over personal data and simplifying the regulatory environment for international business.
HITECH
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law in 2009. The objective is to promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology, particularly electronic health records (EHRs).
Mitigating Data Security Challenges of Cloud Migration
This makes migrating medical data to a new or different cloud platform an extremely delicate operation, much like performing a complicated surgical procedure. The following common vulnerabilities can occur during the migration process if strong security measures are not in place:
- Unauthorized access, data leakage, or inadequate encryption
- Data loss because of human error, software bugs, or hardware failures
- Temporary downtime or disruption in cloud services
- Incompatibility of legacy systems with the cloud environment
- Performance issues, such as latency and slow response time
Addressing these vulnerabilities requires careful planning, robust security measures, and continuous monitoring of all PHI assets.
Data Intensity can help you manage and govern data across multiple cloud environments, setting up provenvpolicies and reliable frameworks to ensure data integrity and compliance. During the migration process and afterward, we focus on closing and/or preventing gaps to prevent modern-day security incidents, such as:
Ransomware attacks
Cybercriminals encrypt critical data and demand a ransom for its release, often causing significant disruptions to patient care and operations.
Phishing attacks
Cyber hackers target healthcare workers via email or phone tricking them into revealing sensitive information or login credentials, which can result in account compromise and unauthorized access to patient data.
System misconfigurations
Sophisticated hackers can detect and exploit the slightest misconfiguration in the cloud, e.g. improper access controls, unsecured APIs, and/or lack of encryption.
Denial of Service (DoS)
Insidious DoS attacks overwhelm healthcare systems with traffic, causing service interruptions and impacting patient care.
Insider threats
Employees or contractors with access to sensitive data can intentionally or unintentionally cause security incidents, leading to data breaches or other exposure.
Choosing the Right Cloud Management Provider
The selection of a cloud management provider is not an easy task. The right choice is essential to a highly secure cloud migration experience to keep data security and regulatory compliance under tight control.
What to look for? Besides experience migrating healthcare data, a key consideration is that the provider has bona fide security certifications, in addition to knowledge of creating compliance frameworks, the offering of end-to-end encryption, and a proven track record for setting up secure data centers and cloud environments.
The selection process has to focus first and foremost on security and compliance matters—the building blocks of healthcare data management. Below are some questions to ask potential cloud management service providers:
- How do you ensure data security?
- What access controls do you have in place?
- Are you compliant with industry-specific regulations (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.)?
- How do you handle data breaches?
- How do you ensure data privacy?
- What is your service uptime commitment?
- What type of disaster recovery and data redundancy policies and procedures do you have?
- What training do you provide your staff on security best practices?
- How do you handle data sovereignty and localization requirements?
Implementing Best Practices for Compliance
To achieve ongoing regulatory compliance, healthcare practitioners must establish a rigorous data governance framework, following the best practices of role-based and least-privilege access. The governing body of this structured framework should be fully authorized to conduct regular compliance monitoring and audits. This ensures all members of your organization are following relevant rules, regulations, and standards that apply to the healthcare industry in a given geographical location.
