Why it’s important for your private cloud to be HIPAA compliant

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standards that businesses in the healthcare industry must follow to keep patient’s protected health information (PHI) secure. Being HIPAA compliant means that a business has network, physical, and process measures in place to keep patient information confidential. Every healthcare provider, regardless of size of practice, who electronically transmits health information in connection with certain transactions, is subject to follow HIPAA compliance standards.

If you work in a healthcare related industry, you have a practical understanding of the HIPAA regulations and understand the importance of meeting HIPAA standards. Let’s discuss why it is important for SmartBase Solutions private cloud hosting solutions to be HIPAA compliant.

Private Clouds and HIPAA Compliance

As cloud infrastructures become increasingly popular, many healthcare providers are choosing to store patient medical information on cloud environments. In order to maintain HIPAA compliance, healthcare providers must ensure patient medical information is stored safely and protected from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.

Both public and private cloud solutions can meet HIPAA compliance standards. Being HIPAA compliant is about how you’re protecting PHI rather than the technology in which your data resides.  While public clouds can be configured to meet HIPAA requirements, working with a managed hosting provider with a HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified private cloud solution ensures you’re working with a partner who understands what it takes to be HIPAA compliant. It also means they have the processes and procedures in place to ensure your data is protected in a way that’s meeting HIPAA standards.  With a managed hosting partner with this expertise, all layers of the infrastructure are configured and monitored to ensure HIPAA standards are being met.

Why it is important for your private cloud to be HIPAA compliant

The need for data security increases as more patient data is shared and stored electronically. There are many reasons you want your private cloud provider to be HIPAA compliant, including:

1. Meet compliance and regulations standards. Using a HIPAA compliant private cloud hosting service allows you to easily meet the ever-changing HIPAA compliance standards.
2. Higher level of security. Security is highly important to healthcare providers. Private clouds take additional measures to protect your patient information through layers of security controlled by your private cloud provider. These layers include data centers, firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, advanced logging, server hardening, segmentation, and more to protect your data and keep access limited to authorized users.
3. Increase in online healthcare. The increase of virtual clinic visits has grown over the years. A private cloud helps secure the influx of patient information that you access and allow access to online.

SmartBase Solutions Managed Hosting is HIPAA Compliant and HITRUST Certified

SmartBase Managed Hosting keeps your patient data safe in our secure private cloud. We are HIPAA Compliant and HITRUST Certified. We store and protect all of your data to give you an added layer of security and peace of mind. Give us a call at 612.767.9940 or contact us today to learn more about any of our solutions.

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