Coalfire, an IT Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) firm and Healthshare Montana are to offer statewide compliance services to healthcare providers through Coalfire’s HIPAACentral service.
“Coalfire is excited to partner with HealthShare Montana in what is quickly becoming the ‘Angie’s List’ of healthcare compliance – HIPAAcentral. This is a game-changer for every organization in the healthcare ecosystem that faces HIPAA compliance obligations. Covered entities (CEs) get a cost-effective way to manage their compliance requirements while removing the hassle of continuous compliance monitoring,” said Andrew Hicks, healthcare practice director at Coalfire. “Business associates and subcontractors get a quick and easy, ‘one-and-done’ solution for HIPAA compliance management with the benefit of high visibility in the market as a compliant provider of services.”
HIPAACentral offers a variety of risk assessment and privacy compliance tools, including self-test and risk assessment tools, training and access to third-party tools. Healthcare providers under HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, are required to keep medical records strictly private, even as they transition to electronic medical records.
The need for compliance will grow as more people sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, especially as the deadline for the individual mandate looms on March 31.
Coalfire claimed that data breaches had increased by over 138 percent since 2012, and that was just the covered entities reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Several high profile data breaches outside of the healthcare industry, including the one affecting Target stores, highlights the need for stringent compliance with best practices for safeguarding sensitive data.
“Healthcare organizations of all types are facing increased HITECH Act compliance issues and are expected to closely monitor their vendors in order to assure patients’ personal health records are protected,” said Brad Putnam, executive director of HealthShare Montana. “By partnering with Coalfire, HealthShare Montana is providing Montana healthcare organizations with access to a tool to affordably and efficiently manage their technology vendors and protect their patient’s personal health information. The risks of not managing your vendors are just too great to ignore any longer.”
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
