HIPAA Compliant Websites – A Priority For Anyone In The Healthcare Industry.
Building a HIPAA-compliant website demands the right partner and process.
Ever since HIPAA was enacted in 1996 – originally for the purpose of making health insurance coverage more portable for patients moving to another employer – there have been challenges to implementation, confusion among both patients and providers and technology challenges.
One of those challenges is how to build a website that is HIPAA compliant. With so many open source website companies and platforms, building a site that accounts for that privacy is just as important and the concerns are just as prevalent today.
Do I have to have a HIPAA-compliant site?
If your website stores or sends protected health information, the answer is yes.
And you might ask what falls under that umbrella of protected information? In short, it’s any recognizable demographic info, genetic information, anything relating to an individual’s physical or mental heath as well as private payment information. So whether you’re a hospital system or an adjacent provider, the answer is very likely yes.
What counts as collected information?
It would seem just about everything. Any contact forms, live chats, patient portals or online forms that get captured are protected. If you’re storing any of that data, privacy and protection is even more critical. And note, any perceived violation can bring a fine of $500 to sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. It’s a costly risk that you’ll never have to take in the first place by making your site HIPAA compliant.
How do you ensure compliance?
The first step is partnering with the best possible hosting provider who can offer HIPAA-compliant cloud servers. And once you’ve taken care of hosting, select a website partner who has experience in building HIPAA-compliant sites and knows all the rules. We won the GDUSA Health + Wellness Design award in 2017 and have websites, apps and content for many healthcare providers and know the rules of engagement so you never have to worry about whether your site partner knows the game. In fact, Atlantic.net named us one of the world’s 10 best HIPAA-compliant site partners!
