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HIPAA Compliance
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| HIPAA has
enacted several mandates to improve the access and portability of
patient health records while maintaining strict privacy and security.
A critical aspect of the HIPAA privacy ruling is Data Protection,
requiring compliant backup methodologies to ensure the security and
confidentiality of patient records. Health care providers who engage
in electronic transactions must observe privacy safeguards to restrict
the use and disclosure of individually identifiable health
information. |
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| Dialyourweb
supports HIPAA compliance through automated off-site data protection
with on-demand recovery, while ensuring strict data security and
confidentiality. |
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REQUIREMENTS |
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Restrict
Unauthorized Access
Patient record
confidentiality is critical. Any electronic data transfer and
storage must be adequately protected and secure from all
unauthorized access.
Contingency Plan
Organizations are required
to have a contingency plan to continue operations in the event of
data loss. This contingency plan MUST include details concerning
the data backup and recovery process, who handles the backup
media, the media rotation process, where the media is stored
off-site, how quickly it can be retrieved in the event of a
disaster, and all other aspects associated with data backups,
protection, security, storage, and recovery.
Data loss can result in further
losses of productivity, patients/customers, and revenue. In many
cases significant data loss will result in lost business.
Fortunately, the damaging impact of data loss can be negated with
a qualified data protection solution as part of your contingency
plan. |
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DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS |
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Tape Drives |
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- Initial investment starts at $2,000 for
the drive and backup software. Consider this a semi-annual
expense since drives will wear out.
- A rotating backup methodology uses a minimum of
19 tapes per year -averaging another $800 per year for tape
storage media.
- Tapes have a limited shelf life. Due to tape
costs and media rotation hassles, it is common to resort to
taping over and over on the same tape, only to discover that the
tape has worn out, rendering the backups unusable.
- Off-site storage is required. Convenient
storage and expedited retrieval is necessary for emergency
situations.
- Tape storage space is limited and not conducive
to automated, unattended backups.
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Removable Storage Drives |
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- These devices require a high entry price for a reliable
system.
- Off-site storage is required. Convenient storage and
expedited retrieval is necessary for emergency situations.
- Storage capacity limitations make automated and unattended
backups impractical.
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External Disc Media (CDs, DVDs)
Due to their low price point and readily
available drives, rewritable CDs (CD-RW) and DVDs have become a
popular backup media. However, you should note that: |
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- CDs have less storage capacity than tapes, making automated
and unattended backups impractical.
- DVDs have a larger storage capacity than CDs, but are still
limited.
- Off-site storage is required. Convenient storage and
expedited retrieval is necessary for emergency situations.
- Limited shelf life is a definite concern.
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Since external backup storage media (Zip drives,
CDs, DVDs, Tapes, Flash drives, external hard drives, etc.) can be
easily stolen, support limited data sizes, often utilize no or
minimal encryption security and must be transported to/from
off-site storage facilities, they seldom represent adequate data
protection solutions for HIPAA compliance.
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Online Backup Services
Online backup (remote backup) services
represent a fully-automated, secure, unlimited off-site storage
facility for quality data backup operations. |
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- Fully automated data backups at secure off-site facilities.
- No hardware to buy or manage.
- No media to buy, rotate, catalog or store offsite.
- All data is encrypted for security.
- Data can be easily restored on-demand 24x7.
- Service costs can be low compared to external media.
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Dialyourweb FOR HIPAA COMPLIANCE
HIPAA compliant information systems require a
combination of administrative procedures, physical safeguards and
technical measures to protect patient information during storage and
transmission across communication networks. As a significant part of
your overall contingency plan, Dialyourweb provides secure, automated
data transmission and storage services for data backup and recovery.
Dialyourweb implements the following HIPAA compliant
features:
- Automated, unattended data backups with built-in
notifications.
- Ultimate data security via 448-bit encryption –
data is ALWAYS compressed and encrypted during transmission and
storage.
- Data integrity controls with mutual authentication.
- Restricted password access – a secret encryption
key can be specified for ultimate security, even Dialyourweb can’t
get access your data.
- Off-site storage at highly-secured data centers.
- Data is mirrored to secondary secure facilities for
ultimate data availability
- Extended storage is available (HIPAA requires
storage for minimum 6 years).
- On-demand, exact copy data retrieval - 24x7x365.
- Optional monthly CD or DVD archives are available.
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Additionally:
- No cost or hassles with external devices, media, or
offsite storage.
- US company with the lowest subscription rates in
the industry.
HIPAA privacy rules provide Dialyourweb and its
affiliates with “business associate” rights to limited use and
disclosure of the information. Dialyourweb never discloses data unless
required by law. Dialyourweb does not access any portion of the backup
data unless authorized for customer support purposes. Dialyourweb can
be fully prevented from data access by use of the client-side secret
encryption key.
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| Please visit the
Office for
Civil Rights - HIPAA website for more information about the
national standards to protect the privacy of personal health
information. |
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