Is your Data Backup Solution HIPAA Compliant? It should be.

If you’re an IT professional in the healthcare industry, then you know that HIPAA is key when it comes to information technology, security, and protection. Finding the right software to achieve compliance with HIPAA guidelines and overall IT security isn’t just about preference–it’s about finding the most comprehensive, and compliant solution possible. However, finding the right solution that meets HIPAA compliance and retains and backs up information can be a challenge.

In this blog, we’re going to break down everything you need to know about HIPAA and why Backupify can be the perfect solution for healthcare businesses.

What is HIPAA?

Believe it or not, HIPAA has been around for less than 30 years. In 1996, a federal law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. This standard became increasingly challenging as businesses transitioned from storing data in file cabinets to storing data online — both on-premise and off.

Despite the challenges, the following entities are legally required to adhere to the US Department of Human and Health Services’ HIPAA Privacy Rule:

• Healthcare providers
• Health plans
• Healthcare clearinghouses
• Hybrid entities
• Business associates

For as useful as HIPAA is, we can’t understate the challenges it presents for IT professionals working to protect patient data.

Backing Up Your Data for Compliance

For healthcare businesses, secure and reliable data that is accessible to the proper, authorized recipients is essential for a myriad of reasons, Data:

• Provides dependable care for patients
• Improves communication between medical staff and patients
• Elevates company connectivity

Think back to 2019 when the WannaCry ransomware attack crippled more than 300,000 IoT devices, including 80 National Health Services hospitals in the U.K. The attack made it impossible for clinicians to access their patient’s medical records, causing a pause in medical care.

Just this one example showcases the importance of safeguarding data in disaster situations.

And, your data may be more vulnerable than you think — it’s not just ransomware attacks that can risk business productivity, safety, and compliance.

This is especially true for healthcare businesses that leverage cloud-based productivity tools like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace (formerly Gsuite) for your data protection. Specifically, these two services operate on a Shared Responsibility Model which leaves gaps in data protection.

For example, while these services promise to protect your data from service interruptions due to hardware or software failure and loss of service due to natural disaster or power outage, you’re left unprotected from:

• Human error
• Computer theft
• Damage to your technology (like water or liquid damage)
• Malicious insiders
• Damage from third-party applications

And, viruses and malware.

While no one wants data loss to happen, it’s a harsh reality that businesses must always be prepared to handle, and this is especially important in healthcare. That’s why it’s recommended to have at least one data backup and recovery plan in place (or even more).

Backing up your data allows you reliable access to it in the event of an unforeseen disaster that corrupts or deletes your data. With a tool like Backupify, you can add a layer of protection to help assure that your information is secure, protected, and intact, as required by HIPAA.

Finding a HIPAA Compliant Backup Partner

Not only do you need to remain HIPAA compliant, you also need to know the backup vendor you work with to protect your data adheres to those industry standards as well.

Backupfiy places an emphasis on data security. Meeting HIPAA compliance is a marker of security, and this has been true for Backupify since 2014. Backupify works with many dozens of healthcare companies to protect their data from disaster.