Aug 4
2014
HIPAA and Encryption Lower the Cost of Healthcare
Guest post by Gilad Parann-Nissany, founder and CEO, Porticor Cloud Security.
Add to the list of known certainties: death, taxes, and the need to lower the cost of healthcare.
Neither HIPAA standards nor encryption were created with the purpose of lowering the cost of healthcare, but neither was penicillin originally purposed as an antibiotic. Both welcome side effects in the world of medicine.
Cloud Computing and Healthcare
Healthcare and medical companies are migrating to cloud computing in record numbers. The cloud offers flexibility and scalability to manage ever-growing databases of patient records. At the same time, it offers mobility to enable care providers to access patient information remotely and shareability to share data with colleagues, specialists, and labs. The cloud, perhaps most importantly, enables cost reduction on several levels.
- It eliminates the need healthcare organization have to purchase, maintain, upgrade, and replace costly computing equipment and staff.
- It saves costs of multiple providers running multiple tests by enabling them to share and track the results.
- It saves time and money by enabling paperless transmission of prescriptions and insurance claims. It also increases the accuracy of reimbursement coding.
Now, HIPAA omnibus and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) requirements stipulate everyone in the healthcare industry begin migrating patient records and other data to cloud computing. Essentially, by 2015, all medical professionals with access to patient records must utilize electronic medical and health records (EMR and EHR), or face penalties.