Does your business need a VOIP provider that is HIPPA Compliant?
This last week I had a VOIP customer who had some unique needs that made me look into how HIPPA applies to the Voice-Over-IP world and made me expend my understanding of what businesses need to comply with this law. The needs that made this customer unique were that they are a software company that deals with personal client information and they had to be fully HIPPA compliant to pass any potential audits of their software. This applied to their phone, software integration and fax transmissions.
So “what is HIPPA”?
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191, included Administrative Simplification provisions that required HHS to adopt national standards for electronic health care transactions and code sets, unique health identifiers, and security. At the same time, Congress recognized that advances in electronic technology could erode the privacy of health information. Consequently, Congress incorporated into HIPAA provisions that mandated the adoption of Federal privacy protections for individually identifiable health information.
The simple interpretation for those that don’t speak ‘Govermenteas’ is: The government has created a law and set of standards requiring anyone who electronically handles your personal medial information to keep it safe.
So “what kind of businesses would this affect”?
Many businesses think “I am not in the medical industry so it doesn’t apply to me right?” WRONG! It does, without a doubt, apply to medial and healthcare related businesses such a doctors offices, hospitals, medical clinics, Planned Parenthood and other similar providers but it also includes many other small businesses. By the wording businesses like insurance agents, dentists, law offices, schools, banks, and adoption agency’s would seem to make logical sense.
If you look a little closer into who has to consider this it also would included businesses outside of the healthcare sector as many small businesses (and larger) offer healthcare, electronically store data and store information on employees health which means they must comply with HIPPA requirements. If your business records an employees absence for medial reasons such as John has taken a month off for cancer treatments then you must consider the HIPPA complacency if you are storing this information in software or electronically (also must not give it out verbally).
Consider if you are in any of the following industries you need to look at HIPPA regulations (including your Phone System or VOIP provider):
Eye Doctor
Insurance Agent
Gym or Workout Facility
Nursing Home
Pharmacists
Document Shredding Businesses
Cloud Storage Providers
Software Developers
Sports Organizations
Have you considered how this applies to your Phone System or VOIP Provider?
Until last week, I thought all the PBX and VOIP Providers would surely meet HIPPA compliance requirements as they sell to law firms, insurance agents, banks, hospitals and agencies. The real answer is some do, some meet parts and others don’t. The law requires the business be responsible for securing the data NOT the service provider who doesn’t know if you need to be compliant or not. Here are several examples of things to consider when talking digital communications:
You got a digital fax or paper fax with client health card information on it
You store your employee attendance in a piece of electronic software
Clients leave you voicemail messages that are stored on your VOIP system
Your voicemail is transferred email as an attachment
You have one general mailbox that all employees have access to employee call offs or client information
You use a CRM program that contains client information (some connect to VOIP provider)
You write your own software that you want to connect to your phone for dialing
MotionVOIP experts can help you find a VOIP that meets your HIPPA compliance needs.