HIPAA Law and Backups
Since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and then the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 1999, healthcare practices are required to implement contingency plans for securing patient information at all times. Contingency planning objectives include disaster recovery, electronic data storage and emergency operations procedures.
Knowing about HIPAA and HITECH doesn't necessarily mean you fully understand how to comply with it, or have the resources to do so. Additionally, these laws can be somewhat confusing and you may be frustrated with the time you are spending to figure them out.
HIPAA/HITECH guidelines for data backup require medical practices and hospitals to implement a data storage plan as a fail-safe measure for protecting patient health information (PHI). Data storage plans involve maintaining exact copies of patient information and EMRs within an alternate computer system or storage facility. Any stored data must be accessible and retrievable at all times. These provisions also require practices to maintain a system that is capable of backing up real-time data on a continuous basis. Data storage plans are designed to enforce the physical security guidelines contained within HIPAA law. Data storage plans work in conjunction with disaster recovery procedures and play an essential role in restoring operations when an emergency event takes place.
Proven Backup helps healthcare providers to establish and implement procedures to create and maintain retrievable exact copies of EMR/EHR patient data. But unlike typical backup providers, Proven Backup has a dedicated HIPAA/HITECH Compliance Officer who works with healthcare practices to ensure IT security directives and electronic data confidentiality laws as set forth by HIPAA/HITECH are upheld at all times and with all data sources. Our Compliance Officer has an in-depth understanding of HIPAA/HITECH regulations and collaborates with various departments to develop and offer IT Risk Assessments. This includes data backup procedures, in-office and remote user access to electronic data, and more. Contact us for additional information.