JS Business Solutions Blog

There are a few words in the business world that can make an owner’s stomach drop quite like "compliance."

The moment someone brings up regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, or state-level data privacy laws, most managers picture mountains of dry legal paperwork, confusing audits, and massive fines poised to ambush their bank accounts. It feels like an overwhelming amount of red tape designed for massive corporations, yet forced onto small offices that don't have a dedicated legal team.

Let's look at this matter-of-factly. I focus less on the politics behind these policies and more on whether the requirements actually protect your business, based on my own experience.

Technology continues to play a major role in healthcare, especially as it has become more prominent. Through technology, the healthcare industry has been able to stabilize costs, improve access, and personalize care delivery—challenging concepts in years past. That said, these innovations come at the cost of potential issues with data privacy… issues that become more prominent as technology becomes even more advanced.

For years you’ve heard how technology is becoming a bigger part of the healthcare delivery system and how it can help stabilize costs, provide increased access, and further personalize care delivery. As these innovations have been taking hold it has brought up serious questions about data privacy. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the changes IT has brought to healthcare and what it means for patient data privacy. 

2020 offered no shortage of challenges for healthcare providers. Besides the obvious issues that COVID-19 posed to the operations, finances, and supply chains that these organizations rely on, cybersecurity issues have played a significant role. Let’s go over some of the security stresses that healthcare providers have been experiencing.

No technology lasts forever. Your business will need to replace server hardware or workstations eventually, no matter how well you take care of it. However, what do you do with the hard drive of any device that you have to replace? If you don’t take action to destroy your old hard drive (after moving any data off of it as needed), you could be in violation of various compliance guidelines issued by HIPAA.