HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and HITECH stands for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Both acts have to do with how health records and data are handled.
SSAE 18 is similar. It’s an accounting standard created by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
The parameters of all three have enormous implications both for healthcare and for web hosting. Dedicated server and managed hosting services that use next-generation data centers must ensure that they can meet the requirements as outlined in the compliance requirements of each one of them.
Start with a Compliant Data Center
It is important to ensure that you are using a data center that will comply with the standards of HIPAA, HITECH, and SSAE 18 (formerly SSAE 16). When discussing your needs with a data center, such as Atlantic.Net, you should confirm that the data centers conform to the standard contingency plan, data backup plan, disaster recovery plan; emergency mode operation plan, testing and revision procedures, and applications; and data criticality analysis. Data servers have their own compliance requirements when managing your HIPAA database, and you need to ensure that their performance standards can match up with your compliance requirements.
Achieving SSAE 18 Type II Certification to ensure that SSAE 18 will not present a problem for the server in the current time or immediate future is important. If you are in healthcare, you are probably familiar with the increasing demand for server and data center compliance. The new generation of HIPAA data centers has helped to pave the way for many healthcare IT companies that needed to find a rock-solid solution for their businesses’ hosting solution needs.
HIPAA was designed to provide better access to health insurance, reduce fraud and abuse, and lower the cost of obtaining health care in the USA. HITECH further reinforces the HIPAA regulations and provides some additional rules for you to follow. The data center you choose should help make the transition to become a fully compliant business, at least through your online presence. This may raise a few eyebrows, and some people are even a bit nervous about whether or not their business can meet the demand in time for compliance testing. With the proper structure completed ahead of time, the hard part is done; all you need to do is plug into the tools and features available for you to use.
What Do HIPAA, SSAE 18, and HITECH Compliance in Hosting Require?
Being HIPAA, SSAE 18, and HITECH compliant means going the extra mile in server colocation, delivering dedicated servers, managed server hosting, and compliance through a credible data center. A data center must be reliable, with certified and trained staff who know how to handle customer problems and inquiries.
HIPAA, HITECH, and SSAE 18 compliant are vital in today’s environment, and everyone is fully aware of the legal boundaries in which healthcare organizations must operate. More efficient cooling procedures ensure that the compliance sequences are followed without a possibility for failure.
Dynamic allocation of resources where they are needed helps solve many resource issues. Additionally, the resources are used in the coolest parts of the data center, meaning more efficient use of the resources.
Optimizing application performance is one of the main advancements that next-generation data centers do incredibly well. These next-generation data centers brought into operation have data security as one of their incredible strong points.
The new healthcare reform mandates implement even tighter security with HITECH, and service providers have vested large amounts in these regulations. Ample controls and checks/balances will be ensured for obvious reasons to help the patients and healthcare providers. The government understands that companies need to be encouraged to take things to the next level, and as a result, there are tax incentives to deploy EMR/EHR (Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Records).
Using cloud servers, you can scale up and scale out according to what your business needs. Even more so, quality data centers can keep your healthcare organization safe! Using virtualization, companies have dedicated themselves to the continued success of your business. This means they have left no stone unturned to bring you an unprecedented level of services from which you can choose.
Being HIPAA compliant is partly the job of the hosting company and partly yours as well. They provide you with the services – the data center, the managed hosting, and the tech support to ensure you have what you need to bring your healthcare business to the compliance level. They can only offer you the required services by the HIPAA, HITECH, and SSAE 18 regulations. They need your help to make sure both parties are up to speed in the quest to keep your business in complete compliance.
Cloud computing is a huge part of next-generation data centers. Virtualization technology has made it possible for everyone to have their resources delivered at the most optimum moment through more efficient handling of server resources. If you are new to cloud computing, you should know that this technology in no way endangers your ability to stay HIPAA, HITECH, and SSAE 18 compliant. Cloud computing is simply the new way of handling server requests and scaling additional resources up and out.
Have you ever stopped to consider what would happen if you were tagged with a violation of the HIPAA, HITECH, or SSAE 18 compliance standards? It would be a catastrophic blow to your business that would land you in court! Additionally, the people affected by the violation could sue for damages. SSAE 18 web hosting services are now structured around ensuring that everything in the facility is certified to the new standards of operation.
Being in business for over 15 years, since 1994, has given us a chance to really perfect the art of cloud hosting, server virtualization, data security, compliance, and the ability to provide a carrier-neutral data center.
HIPAA Compliant Hosting with Atlantic.Net
Atlantic.Net and other serious hosting companies have been a step ahead of the compliance standards from day one. Business expertise has allowed us to keep the healthcare IT businesses that we already have under our wing and ahead of the flames. We can help your business stay in line with these compliance standards as well.
All in all, HIPAA web hosting server issues won’t be much of a big deal once you realize what they are all about. The compliance issues would generally arise from a data center not having sufficient hardware or software to accommodate regulatory compliance. The customer may not be able to get the business into a state of compliance by themself. Either way, a next-generation data center must offer the services in demand to meet the compliance requirements to be compliant with the regulations themselves.
