HITRUST

Over the past two decades, many healthcare companies have struggled to transition from physical to digital record keeping as mandated by the HITECH Act. Naturally, the convoluted changes, standards, and stringencies outlined therein have left businesses confused, scratching their heads, wondering how best to wade through this quagmire. As a result, the total overhaul of such a massive system has moved at a glacial pace. 

To make matters more complicated, as the healthcare industry develops, growing evermore dependent upon emerging and expanding technologies in order to cache and deliver electronic healthcare records [EHR], ensuring compliance and maintaining cybersecurity has become an increasingly intricate ballet. A large aspect of compliance involves obtaining your HITRUST certification, which is no simple process. So, to help you prepare for the obstacles ahead, below, you’ll find our comprehensive guide on the HITRUST certification process and timeline.

One of the greatest perils the healthcare community must confront involves the ever-present danger of major information security threats. To make matters worse, these are not stagnant hazards; rather, they’re continuously shifting and evolving in response to each newly erected digital moat, palisade, or bulwark. So, as the industry’s information communication technology [ICT] infrastructure becomes more complex and sophisticated, so too do the malicious programs and people seeking entrance into such systems. 

Fortunately, defensive systems and protocols have been raised in order to ward off the hoards of 21st-century barbarians. Chief amongst these measures is HITRUST, which has become the industry standard for regulating and mitigating risk. But what are the major cybersecurity risks in healthcare and how does HITRUST help prevent them? 

Read on to discover the answers to these questions and more!  

In a rapidly evolving, digital healthcare industry, the protection of your private data is more important than ever. As the years have passed and the U.S. healthcare industry made the slow transition from physical to digital recordkeeping, various laws and measures were enacted to better protect customers and ensure that healthcare-related organizations were acting in compliance.

One avenue through which a healthcare organization will achieve compliance is via the HITRUST Alliance. Naturally, you may read this and wonder, what does HITRUST stand for? So, if you want the answer to that and much much more, read on to discover everything you need to know about HITRUST. 

In 2007, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) took the world of healthcare security by storm when it introduced a framework that does not only protect sensitive information but also manage risks for global organizations across third-party supply chains. 

Technically-speaking, the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) characterizes and transforms HITECH and HIPAA requirements into a standard functional procedure which is subsequently documented and compared to other data privacy and security regulations. 

This allows healthcare organizations to effectively cultivate compliance and be able to meet an extensive range of regulatory requirements. Apart from bringing together HIPAA and HITECH, the HITRUST CSF also boasts globally-recognized security standards such as PCI, COBIT, FTC, ISO, Red Flags, and NIST which work together to take a visionary approach to risk mitigation and data protection.

Healthcare is an industry intertwined with our everyday lives. The young and the old alike rely on doctors to keep them healthy and usually, in that pursuit, reveal personal details to their health practitioners. This means consumers put a lot of trust in healthcare companies. 

But with technology taking over the mundane tasks of healthcare, threat actors target health institutions for that personal information. The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) is designed to verify privacy and security compliance combat healthcare fraud. In particular, there are three different levels associated with HITRUST controls. 

Learn about each HITRUST level and why it’s important with our comprehensive guide. 

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) is an organization that creates and maintains a common security framework (CSF) for businesses and organizations in the healthcare sector. Founded in 2007, the Texas-based entity has a prescriptive set of controls that organizations can use in creating, accessing, storing, or exchanging sensitive or regulated data. 

HITRUST certification is commonly required by organizations handling protected health information (PHI).  It provides a holistic approach to managing information security risks. Considered as the gold standard for compliance in the healthcare industry, it combines commonly accepted standards such as:

If you’re a business owner who operates within the healthcare industry, you know that patients are your top priority. Whether it’s protecting their health or their data, you want to meet a high standard of excellence. Read below for more information on the HITRUST Alliance and how they help protect the healthcare industry. 

Rapid advances in medical technology are changing the healthcare industry for the better, but along with these technological advances, come adverse risks. Additionally, as doctors gather more data about their patients through medical devices connected to the internet, it is crucial that this data remains private. Robust data is important for the best care, just as robust security keeps that data private and secure.