Using Cloud Backup to Protect Patient Information

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires organizations to implement contingency plans for securing their patient information and data. The objectives for the contingency planning include disaster recovery and data storage. These backup requirements are a helpful starting point for health-related organizations to build an cost-effective plan for storing and protecting their patient health information. 

Healthcare providers who engage in electronic transactions must insure privacy while also employing compliant backup methodologies to guarantee the access, portability and confidentiality of patient records. This means that organizations must be able to restore computer records after an emergency situation. They must also provide secure means for protecting patient health information and backup this data real-time on a continuous basis.

One technology that helps the healthcare industry address these HIPAA requirements is cloud-based backup. As we mentioned in an earlier post the cloud refers to technologies that deliver computing over a network as an on-demand service. The model allows for secure sharing of applications, resources and data with computers and mobile devices almost like a utility.

In order to support HIPAA compliance and be a relevant alternative for the healthcare industry  automated solutions must effortlessly and inexpensively achieve very high data reliability and security.  With a well-designed Cloud backup strategy, IT infrastructure can now dynamically change to meet evolving storage needs and security requirements.

Here are a few of the features  that should be included in a properly designed HIPAA compliant healthcare Cloud backup solution:: 

• Fully automated data backups for servers and desktops
• Off-site storage at highly-secured data centers
• Web-based management tools for immediate restoration of damaged or deleted files.
• Long-term storage available in accordance with HIPAA
• Data protection using compression and AES-256 bit encryption
• Integrity controls setup for data
• E-mail Archiving to ensure sensitive data is retained and backed up consistently
• Data availability enhanced with mirroring to secondary secure facilities.

Data loss can result in decreased productivity, patient / customer attrition and revenue loss. Contact IPLogic to discuss how to update your contingency plan and learn about how cloud-based backup and recovery can secure your patient information.