Introduction:
The healthcare industry is one of the fastest-growing markets for information technology services. As healthcare organizations adopt new technologies, they are increasingly turning to healthcare IT service providers to help them meet their compliance requirements.
However, before choosing a healthcare IT service provider, healthcare organizations should carefully consider several issues that might impact their success in protecting patient data security and privacy.
Here are nine things healthcare organizations should consider when choosing healthcare IT service providers:
1. HIPAA compliance
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This federal law requires healthcare organizations to meet certain security and privacy requirements. By outsourcing healthcare data processing, healthcare organizations are required to ensure that their business associates (e.g., vendors or contractors) are HIPAA compliant.
2. Data Encryption Technology
Encryption is a critical component of healthcare organizations’ information security strategies because it can protect sensitive data from being accessed by unauthorized parties. Health IT service providers should make sure healthcare organizations can secure and use patient data as required by HIPAA.
3. Technology Infrastructure
Organizations must choose healthcare IT service providers with the right technical skills and healthcare-specific knowledge to help them meet their operational requirements and regulatory compliance needs. The healthcare IT support should have a proven track record of successful implementation projects, appropriate healthcare industry certifications (e.g., ONC-ATCB, HIMSS), and healthcare-specific security expertise.
4. HIPAA Audit Assistance
Healthcare organizations must document their compliance with HIPAA through a risk assessment process that includes assessing internal technological controls and identifying business associates. The healthcare IT service provider can help healthcare organizations perform these audits and prepare for HHS audits.
5. HIPAA Compliance Reporting
The healthcare IT support should be able to help healthcare organizations with the documentation and reports needed for successful and ongoing compliance with HIPAA (e.g., an annual self-assessment of business associates’ HIPAA compliance).
6. Strong Security Processes
HHS recommends healthcare organizations implement security risk assessment that establishes security policies and procedures; implement safeguards to protect electronically protected health information (ePHI); use appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards; establish monitoring processes; address security concerns in business associate relationships; maintain system integrity; educate users on proper security practices; provide for data back-up and recovery processes, and address security incident response and reporting.
7. HIPAA Compliance Services
Healthcare organizations must make sure healthcare IT service providers can provide healthcare-specific information technology expertise, guidance on healthcare regulations; healthcare-related technical knowledge; key business processes; healthcare claims processing experience; managed IT services for healthcare; healthcare billing coding knowledge (e.g., ICD-10); healthcare claims management experience; healthcare fraud and abuse knowledge; healthcare eligibility and enrollment knowledge; healthcare coverage and benefit knowledge; healthcare clinical documentation improvement services expertise (e.g., CPT-4/CDT, ICD-9/ICD-10, etc.); healthcare coding services expertise (e.g., ICD-10, ICD-9, CPT4, etc.); healthcare claim status expertise; healthcare electronic funds transfer services expertise; healthcare financial management services expertise; healthcare clearinghouse and billing services expertise; healthcare claims adjudication knowledge/experience/processes; healthcare analytics experience (e.g., health insurance risk adjustment, predictive modeling); healthcare medical necessity/utilization review expertise; healthcare prior authorization services expertise; healthcare appeals expertise; healthcare quality assurance experience (e.g., nurse triage, other healthcare quality assurance); healthcare provider credentialing/privileging services expertise; and healthcare eligibility verification services knowledge.
8. Industry Certifications
Health insurance, healthcare exchanges, and healthcare providers should look for healthcare IT service providers that have healthcare-specific industry certifications (e.g., ONC-ATCB, HIMSS). The healthcare IT service provider should be able to share these certifications with the healthcare organization upon request.
9. HIPAA Risk Assessment
Health insurance, healthcare exchanges, and healthcare providers do not need to perform their own HIPAA risk assessments to ensure HIPAA compliance. Instead, healthcare organizations should choose healthcare IT service providers that have dedicated healthcare security experts on staff with healthcare-specific knowledge who can perform HIPAA risk assessments for healthcare organizations.
Conclusion:
It’s a tough decision to make the right service provider for your business. You need to consider everything from what you’re looking out for. After reading the article, I hope that you have a better understanding of how to find the best Healthcare IT service provider for your business. Here we recommend Medical ITG, the best Healthcare IT service provider for your organization. Medical ITG is an expert HIPAA-compliant IT company focused on the healthcare/medical industry. For more information contact us at [email protected].