Information Security in a Health Care Environment

Since the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996, it has been the goal of health care facilities across the nation to comply with these new regulations. There are many reasons for the HIPAA regulations, but the most important is to ensure the privacy of patient data in health care and insurance facilities.

If a health care facility fails to comply with these regulations, it could possibly result in millions of dollars in fines and restitutions. It is also possible for the person or persons responsible to serve time in prison. It is very important for anyone working with sensitive data to follow the most strict security policy available. Finding new ways and technology to protect the sensitive data has been a daunting task for health care facilities.

The government did not assign any products or processes to comply with HIPAA. It is the responsibility of each organization to discover new products and processes to protect their data! There are several aspects to take into consideration when analyzing a potential data security problem. The first aspect to consider is network security. If hackers can penetrate the network, patient data is definitely at risk. The second aspect is Email security. This can be easily covered if the proper policies and education of employees are implemented.

The third aspect is personnel. The workers at a health care facility can definitely be a security breach. In order to prevent this, they should be trained on the new regulations and company policies.