The Real Essence Of HIPAA Compliance

The Real Essence Of HIPAA Compliance
Healthcare app development company
If you are an entity in the human services area and have a portable application that bargains with verified PHI data, then chances are that you would need to be HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) agreeable.
Social insurance like hospitals, clinics, insurance agencies, etc., and even business firms who have created mHealth or EHealth applications rotating around PHI, fall under the ambit of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). All things considered, gathering data does not expect you to be consistent, but rather sharing the data expects you to be.
Requirement movement under the HIPAA Security Rule has gained traction lately. HIPAA compliance sets up a different degree of protection, data security, and rupture warning necessities for human services suppliers and other secured substances. In its initial HIPAA compliance requirement days, the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) for the most part centered on the HIPAA Privacy Rule, has recently imposed developing accentuation on Security Rule implementation also.

SIGNIFICANCE OF HIPAA COMPLIANCE:

HIPAA Privacy gives the patients their rights over health data and regulates who can retrieve that data. The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to all types of people regardless of whether the communication channel is electronic, composed, or verbal.
When your application is HIPPA-compliant, it simply means that you meet the standards set by US Health & Human Services, and user data that you hold is also secured.
Most entities of Practice Management System in Healthcare IT Services that collect and share patient information are concerned about HIPAA privacy rule since non-compliance can turn out to be a costly affair.
Hospitals & companies attract a heavy fine for HIPAA violation that could even run into millions of dollars – there are several cases of hospitals being levied a heavy penalty for violations of a data breach.
HIPAA security was intended to safeguard the patient and their privacy. Each social insurance organization is required to have a consistent division, so that whenever you feel there is a consistence concern or rupture of information; you can contact the office to determine your issue.
If you are thinking about mobile application development that involves PHI data, healthcare app developers working with the providers you have engaged with, need to make sure to design HIPAA-compliant apps.

HIPAA COMPLIANCE AND POLICY:

HIPAA compliance objective was to make a lot of uniform electronic medicinal services exchange codes. Security was normally a noteworthy worry with the progressions examined in HIPAA security, and it was a testing issue, so Congress punted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to propose controls to ensure the protection of wellbeing. HHS replied by proposing a protection control that was finalized in 2000.
If you are seeking mobile application development services already or contemplating it, you need to evaluate what levels of HIPAA compliance you need. This will depend on the PHI (data) you hold and the amount of the data you are sharing. If you are getting the app developed through a mobile application development company, then the app development company should be informed about HIPAA compliance right in the development stage because they have to work on privacy & security rules.
The health information of a patient should be protected and for which the Practise Management System (PMS) needs to be effective and systemized. If any organization is found violating the HIPAA privacy norms then they shall be heavily penalized and fined. Presently, there are many websites and apps that have incorporated a mechanized Practise Management System which enables them to store and retrieve data efficiently and more safely.
a mechanized Practise Management System which enables them to store and retrieve data efficiently and more safely.

HIPAA COMPLIANCE AND ITS JOURNEY:

In the initial years of HIPAA security, many organizations were perplexed but later on, people got familiar with it. From 2003 to 2005, there were many cases registered against lab assistants who tried to misuse the data of the patients. The number of cases kept increasing till 2008, which then led to the formation of corrective measures and actions.
With the advent of advanced technology, the gates for HIPAA policy are wide open and concrete. This will put every organization under scanner and scrutiny. As per the HHS statistics, over 274 breaching incidents took place in the year 2013. The issues related to HIPAA security keep increasing every year. With people excessively resorting to social media, the privacy of patients’ data faces threat and becomes a matter of concern. Presently, more than 2 million patients’ data is affected due to organizations posting the medical data on various social media platforms.
The Health and Human Services department intends to open up new channels of communication to control the crisis situation. Every business needs to understand and be prepared about the upcoming risks and issues related to HIPAA compliance. Organizations must also keep in mind their medical reputations and medical data. By now, it clearly depicts that HIPAA security has evolved by leaps and bounds in these years and as the technology grows so will the scope and field of HIPAA compliance to prosper. Click here to check out the cost of developing HIPAA compliant apps.

Conclusion:

HIPAA compliance brings confidence in patients because they believe that their information will be secure. Therefore, the healthcare industry has been able to see the other side of the story; it is more than just the costs.
For any technical assistance in building HIPAA compliant apps, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a distinguished Healthcare app development company, known for providing high-end software development services to the global clientele.

How Intelligent Healthcare Management Systems Are A Boon to Clinics and Hospitals?

How Intelligent Healthcare Management Systems Are A Boon to Clinics and Hospitals?
Healthcare Management System
As smartphone technology gets infinitely smarter over time, healthcare apps are becoming equally smart, multi-functional and user-friendly. Until 2017, there were over 325,000 recorded healthcare mobile apps in the top app stores around the world with Android topping the list (source: research2guidance). The major driving forces behind this exponential increase is the ever-inflating adoption of smartphones, coupled with heavy investment in the digital health market which fuels healthcare mobile app development.
Many medical facilities are adopting innovations in healthcare mobility solutions in order to be compliant with various healthcare regulations and standards like HIPAA, ACA, etc. Some of them are adopting the digital trends to provide quality healthcare to their patients. With the growing healthcare needs of people across the globe, not only physically but also remotely (through smartphones), healthcare mobility solutions for doctors and practices can be a blessing.
Medical healthcare professionals could face an abundance of challenges if they choose not to adopt digitalization/healthcare mobility solutions such as:
  • Haphazard appointment management and scheduling systems
  • Suboptimal experience for patients while dealing with the availability of physicians
  • Shoddy invoicing and payment processing consuming a large amount of time
  • Medical records and history are scattered across places, and there is no centralized medical history for each individual at one place
  • Patients are unable to trust the healthcare professionals due to lack of proper communication and information
To counter the above challenges, hospitals and healthcare professionals should go for Healthcare Management Systems. These systems are designed to provide a solution to manage the practice and processes pertaining to hospitals thereby improving the quality of patient care. It improves the overall operational efficiency of hospital staff. There is effective exchange of information between hospital/physicians and patients, thus improving communication between facility and patients.

Use Case

Consider the scenario, where a patient wishes to book an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor. With the absence of healthcare mobile apps, a patient would be confronted with the harrowing experience of visiting a clinic for an appointment, which leaches on valuable time. Now, with the advancements in digital technology, we can book the appointments through the mobile app itself in the comfort of our very homes.
book an appointment
This is just one of the arrays of features that Healthcare Management Systems can provide. There is a plethora of other features available in a Healthcare Management System, which we will look into further.

Healthcare Management System

The features of an efficient Healthcare Management System are manifold and doctors can use them in an abundance of situations as below:
features of Healthcare Management System

Centralized patient history

  • You will be able to gain access to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). You can bid farewell to the out-dated paper records and step into the digital age.
  • It can segregate past procedure information which is done at local clinics and medical history, both of which are kept separate from each other.
  • It is designed in an efficient manner which mandates for medical information to be input only once. After that, this data is stored in a centralized server which can be accessed easily.

Efficiently managed appointments

  • Your patients will be able to schedule appointments online in accordance with the slots provided by you. They can also cancel and reschedule the appointments. An HMS also acts as a calendar for doctors where the schedule can be checked and managed, if needed. Timely reminders are another advantage of this system.
  • It can provide Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) clubbed with Patient Scheduler that is customized based on practice needs.

Dedicated interaction between patient and physician

  • It provides patient-doctor communication feature which acts as an instant messaging tool between the two parties. It avoids the middleman and provides healthcare, even in the most remote areas.

Hospital and pharmacy management solutions

  • These solutions for hospitals eliminate errors due to manual involvement, tracks pharmacy inventory online thereby avoiding pilferage of medications. It has better control over the inventory thereby improving profit margins. It promotes efficient workflow processes as well.

E-prescriptions

  • Ability for the physicians to e-prescribe a prescription to a patient thereby eliminating prescription drug errors. It also speeds up the medical settlement process.

Chronic care management

  • This solution facilitates physicians to share the care plan with patients. Patients can key in their exact health status daily. Clinical staff gets access to real-time data along with remote monitoring of vitals.

Reminder feature for patients

  • Reminds the patients to take care of their illnesses by notifying to consume medicines at right times.

Final Verdict

Healthcare consumers are continually showing increased usage of digital technology, with numbers exponentially rising with every passing year. Market for healthcare mobile app development is growing at an enormous speed. Research shows that this market will reach $26 billion by 2017 (source: research2guidance). Healthcare mobile apps and healthcare mobility solutions are being increasingly sought out by doctors and consumers alike.

Author Bio

Manisha Bathia is a Project Manager at Biz4Solutions with 14+ years of experience in Project Management, Quality Assurance and Test Management in IT-related services. She has expertise in various domains like Healthcare, Finance, Water technologies, Transportation, Telecom, etc. She has experience in defining and implementing quality management strategies to ensure exceptional delivery of software projects.