HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

What is the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)?

HIPAA is a U.S. regulation that safeguards the privacy and security of individuals’ health information (PHI). Specifically aiming to safeguard the privacy of patients and health plan subscribers.

Hospital and other medical apps have access to a lot of sensitive data. Not only do they store personal information such as contact information, social security or insurance numbers. They also keep records of medical history, prescriptions, and notes from healthcare providers. With the rise of online consultations, even telehealth communications are stored. Handling patient data comes with significant responsibilities, as healthcare data is sensitive and protected by various privacy and security regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

HIPAA principles applying to mobile devices and applications

(a)(1)(ii)(D)

Implement procedures to regularly review records of information system activity, such as audit logs, access reports, and security incident tracking reports.

(a)(5)(ii)(A)

Install periodic security updates. (B) Procedures for guarding against, detecting, and reporting malicious software. (C) Enable logging and log alerting on critical systems.

(a)(6)(ii)

Implement policies and procedures to address security incidents. Identify and respond to suspected or known security incidents; mitigate, to the extent practicable, harmful effects of security incidents that are known to the covered entity; and document security incidents and their outcomes.

Become compliant with HIPAA

For medical apps to be compliant with HIPAA, business should regularly review information system activity, implement solutions to detect and mitigate security incidents (including malicious software) and alert authorities and clients in case of a security incident.

Pradeo’s app suite protects your apps from hackers and other malicious activities. Our solutions enable you to detect and mitigate code vulnerabilities, avoid attacks and protect your (health) data.