Why is HIPAA Compliance Important?
What Is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) outlines how healthcare providers and similar entities must protect patient health information (PHI). There are so many benefits of HIPAA compliance and enormous costs if one fails to comply. It is not only a legal requirement to comply with HIPAA when it comes to PHI or electronic PHI (ePHI), but something that patients tend to overwhelmingly support as well; patients want to know that their health information is properly safeguarded!
HIPAA Violations
Healthcare providers and similar entities that deal with ePHI can be subject to harsh financial and legal consequences if they fail to properly comply with HIPAA regulations. This makes adherence to HIPAA regulatory standards a legal, financial, and commercial necessity that cannot be brushed off. The benefits of HIPAA compliance far outweigh any advantage of cutting corners when it comes to protecting ePHI.
Email and HIPAA
Most conventional email services don’t provide the necessary level of security when it comes to protecting ePHI. Transmitting ePHI via conventional email services puts this critical information at risk for unauthorized viewing, hacks, and more. A security breach when it comes to ePHI isn’t just an infringement of patient privacy but could put patients at other kinds of risks too, such as identity theft, financial fraud, and even compromised medical care. This is why HIPAA compliance is so important, even when it comes to email!
MailHippo: The Benefits of HIPAA-Compliant Email
It’s important to understand where and how conventional email services fail to meet HIPAA compliance standards and the many benefits of a HIPAA-compliant email platform like MailHippo.
End-to-End Encryption
Unencrypted emails are vulnerable to third-party interception, whether unintentional or malicious. By contrast, the benefit ofHIPAA-compliant encrypted email service is that ePHI is protected and all information cannot be read if intercepted by a third party such as would-be hackers. MailHippo uses top-of-the-line AES-256 end-to-end encryption, meaning that emails are only viewable between the sender and recipient, like a patient and their healthcare provider.
SendSafe® Address Feature
It’s apparent why HIPAA compliance is important and how it’s met, but making it easy is what sets MailHippo apart. For instance, MailHippo provides subscribers with a SendSafe® Address, which allows non-subscribers to easily send encrypted messages to their healthcare providers and others. This makes maintaining the highest level of security and HIPAA compliance easy for both healthcare providers and patients.
HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
MailHippo has a Business Associate Agreement with every client. A BAA is a legal agreement that specifies each party’s responsibilities when it comes to protecting PHI. This gives providers as well as patients peace of mind when they know MailHippo is legally obliged to provide the highest level of HIPAA-compliant security.
MailHippo Makes HIPAA-Compliant Email Easy
MailHippo is your best choice for a secure, HIPAA-compliant email service that can put healthcare providers’ and patients’ minds at ease. Beyond the many security benefits of this HIPAA-compliant email platform, such as the benefits of its encrypted email feature, MailHippo is also incredibly easy to use, mobile-friendly, and offers useful features such as message tracking. When it comes to providing an easy-to-use HIPAA-compliant email service, MailHippo is up to the task!
