Think of HITECH compliance like a HIPAA upgrade. The HITECH Act came more than ten years after HIPAA in order to enforce tougher data security requirements mandated for all healthcare organizations as well as their business associates to follow.
But what is the HITECH Act? What is HITECH compliance? And what software testing strategies should your team implement in order to uphold HITECH compliance?
We compiled this HIPAA and HITECH Act compliance guide so that your healthcare application meets all requirements and standards essential for this ever changing industry.
The HITECH Act of 2009 is a law that expands the scope of privacy and security protections enforced under HIPAA by increasing the potential legal liability for not maintaining HIPAA and HITECH compliance. The HITECH Act—an abbreviation for the Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health Act—also creates incentives for the adoption and meaningful use of healthcare information technology and electronic health records (EHR).
HITECH was enacted in anticipation of future technology advancement within the healthcare industry. Under the HITECH Act, the United States Department of Health and Human Services agreed to spend $25.9 billion to promote and expand the application of health information technology, including for the creation of a nationwide network of electronic health records.
HIPAA and HITECH compliance requirements do not change or cancel each other out. While HIPAA has been around since 1996 to protect patient health data and to simplify hospital administrative procedures, HITECH enforces a higher level of quality and security for electronic systems within the U.S. healthcare infrastructure.
HIPAA was groundbreaking legislature for healthcare, yet not comprehensive enough to prevent certain problems. It was enacted during a time when having computers wasn’t the norm, making it insufficient at regulating electronic privacy and security measures. Technical loopholes made it difficult to enforce intended regulations, not to mention the lenient fees and low penalties for those that were not HIPAA compliant.
That’s why the four subtitles under the HITECH Act are designed to be solutions for these problems. To better understand this HIPAA and HITECH Act compliance guide, lets first explore the requirements of the HITECH Act:
HITECH compliance enforces healthcare provider to:
To incentivize the adoption of EHRs, the Department of Health and Human Services created the Meaningful Use Program that provided compensation to healthcare providers that put EHRs to a meaningful use.
But what does meaningful use mean? To check all the boxes on our HIPAA and HITECH Act compliance checklist, meaningful use relies on these five priorities:
In everyday medical practice, this means that:
HITECH compliance means that business associates must also be HIPAA compliant. Because PHI is always at risk when handled by business associates, HITECH created stricter compliance requirements for business associate agreements. HITECH enforces the liability of a business associate who:
An increase of EHR usage leads to an increased risk of security threats, phishing and cyberattacks. For HITECH compliance, the Breach Notification Rule requires all HIPAA-covered entities and business associates to provide notification following a security breach involving protected health information.
The public must be notified whenever a breach occurs. A breach involving fewer than 500 people, the healthcare provider must notify individuals within 60 days with a letter covering:
A breach involving more than 500 people must provide the above to individuals, in addition to notifying the Secretary of the HHS no later than 60 days following a breach. Some states of jurisdiction also require that covered entities provide notice to prominent media outlets within the area.
To ensure that HIPAA HITECH compliance requirements are met, the HITECH Act allows the HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to audit HIPAA covered entities and business associates. A tied violation penalty and fine system is in place for those found not in HITECH compliance:
In the past, it was often cheaper for some healthcare providers to pay the fines for violating HIPAA compliance requirements than to invest in their security measures within their electronic systems. The HITECH Act updates HIPAA through the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, making all modifications to HIPAA in accordance with guidelines created by the HITECH Act. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule also increased penalties for violations to a maximum of $1.5 million per incident so that covered entities are more willing to invest in enhanced security measures.
Keep all HIPAA HITECH compliance requirements in mind throughout the development and testing process for your software product. In addition to these software testing strategies for healthcare applications, follow this HIPAA HITECH Act compliance checklist so that your healthcare software always upholds the strongest safety practices in handling patient information:
We covered a lot of information through this HIPAA and HITECH compliance guide. While our HIPAA HITECH Act compliance checklist covers all best practices for software testing, there are many intricacies that require skilled healthcare domain expertise to ensure that your healthcare product meets HITECH compliance.
Verify that your healthcare application is HITECH compliant by partnering with a professional QA services provider like QASource. Our team of healthcare domain experts are skilled in all industry healthcare standards and can confirm that your platform complies with all HIPAA and HITECH compliance requirements. Get in touch with a QASource expert today.