As an IT professional in the healthcare industry, ensuring HIPAA compliance in your online meetings suite is one of the most important responsibilities that you have. After all, data breach violations can cost upward of $1.5 million per incident. And aside from the steep fines associated with HIPAA negligence, your business’s reputation could be tarnished in the eyes of its customers if their private information is stolen or compromised.
In the past, ensuring HIPAA compliance was a simpler process since because it primarily involved keeping physical customer medical charts on premises and in locked filing cabinets. But now, due to the fact that a great deal of private information is transmitted among team members over the Internet, your system should be equipped to prevent unauthorized third parties from intercepting data.
Therefore, if you’re looking for an online meetings suite for your healthcare organization, make sure it has the following features along with HIPAA certification:
Strong data encryption: Your company will generate a lot of customer data during online meetings, and you must protect that information as it flows over the Internet among end users. Encryption locks the information using secure coding; this way, if it is intercepted by an unauthorized third party, it will be inaccessible. Just about any form of multimedia can be encrypted.
Access controls: You don’t want unauthorized employees accessing customer information. Accordingly, look for a solution that comes with access controls such as unique user ID numbers and automatic logoff to safeguard against snooping eyes and sensitive data from sitting on idling machines.
Integrity controls: This type of control can prevent sensitive data like health records from being altered in real time during online meetings. Using integrity controls, you can ensure that data can be shared among team members and returned to its original state without its contents being changed.
Of course, it pays to partner with an online meetings provider like Onstream Meetings, which can provide your business with a full suite of HIPPA-compliant features. You can learn more about Onstream Meetings by clicking here.
