What is HIPAA & How To Create HIPAA Compliant Mobile Apps?

With the volatile growth prospects in the digital healthcare industry over the preceding few years means there are loads of managers and developers who haven’t still worked under HIPAA before. This blog is written for company professionals who could have assistance on HIPAA Compliance for Software Development and how to develop PHI & HIPAA Compliant Mobile Apps?

What is PHI?

PHI (Protected Health Information) is any information in a healthcare record that can be utilized to categorize an entity, and that was built, used, or disclosed in the course of delivering a medical service, such as a health-related treatment or diagnosis. It covers medical records along with interactions amid doctors and healthcare staff about patient treatment. PHI even comprises billing information and all the patient details related to health insurance stored in computer systems. Also, check the Methods for De-identification of PHI.

What is HIPAA?

PHI is the definition utilized by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to describe the category of patient information that lies under the jurisdiction of the law. The healthcare applications that gather and store PHI require following HIPAA compliance guidelines for being compliant with the authority of the law.

HIPAA has four fundamental purposes which comprise of privacy of healthcare information, having administrative simplification, enabling security of electronic records and easy insurance portability.

So, the professionals who are planning to build healthcare-related digital solutions should be focused on the data privacy that is controlled, being stored, and conveyed through your HIPAA compliant app development.

Becoming an HIPAA-Compliant Enterprise

Does the question arise how to become an HIPAA-Compliant Enterprise? To attain this, you just need to stay compliant with consistency. During HIPAA compliant app development, make sure that you utterly follow the technical guidelines described in the act.

You are required to follow activity logs; rules related to data encryption, proper application login, and have emergency access at different stages. Also, physical guidelines related to the security of the servers, data centers, as well as other hardware tools on the backend of the software solution has to be taken care of by professionals.

HIPAA Compliant Features

Let’s also get familiarised with Features of HIPAA Compliant App Development.

• • User Authentication

Appropriate user authentication methodologies such as working with Passwords, PIN codes, Biometrics, cards, tokens need to be all set and there with your HIPAA compliance software application development.

• • Access Control

The HIPAA compliant apps should have precisely defined access controls for different users as well as admins. The extent of access to the data and information should be constrained as per the HIPAA privacy rules.

• • Way into Security

If your software will transfer PHI over different networks, then it needs to be ensured that data transmitting over the networks are highly encrypted using SSL/TLS.

• • Security related to Devices

Device security is equally significant compared to the mobile application or the software. Professionals can add security layers to the healthcare apps by having more features such as full device encryption as well as remote data erasure.

• • Audit Control

Have an answerable audit control for the PHI data being managed. The stakeholders must always know where and how the PHI is being utilized. A straightforward method is to have a log file in the database of who is using which PHI data at a prearranged time.

• • Disposal of PHI

It is essential to permanently destroy any PHI that is not used to any further extent. In many cases, companies lost affluence over this type of data sets that were not even being utilized.

• • Secure Data Backup

Data backup is needed for any company working with imperative PHI. Having secure data backups are always required for staying secure against server crash, database corruption, earthquake or such other incidents.

HIPAA compliance for software development checklist

Below is a list of all the crucial components for HIPAA compliant app development, based on HIPAA Security Rules. The utilization of this HIPAA compliance checklist and elements will enable your software development process to make sure ePHI security and privacy levels.

• Make sure whether your application or software actually requires HIPAA compliance. If your app just shows the overall calorie intake or is a fitness band, then your health app doesn’t call HIPAA compliance for software development.
• If your mobile app needs just to explore the healthcare statistics of the patients, then calculating the medical expenses is of no purpose to you and purely a more substantial threat in holding of a security attack. So, only measure the data that is practical for your wants.
• Have a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) when you deal with third-party service vendors. This way even if your team is faultless in preserving security, if a slip occurs on the vendor side, the BAA will shield you from the harms executed by other business parties.
• Have HIPAA compliant text messaging data precisely encrypted. The SMS and MMS are not fully encrypted, so don’t insert these features to your healthcare software or mobile application. In the same way, push notifications are not useful for such software applications.
• Have a privacy policy for the stakeholders and users before they partner or sign up. An individual error can occur at any place or at any time.
• Have a HIPAA compliant cloud stack in your app and don’t keep data on the iOS and Android devices.
• Get rid of the PHI that is not being utilized. If you erase out the data that is no longer necessary, you will not be in any type of risk related to hacking or wrong access.
• For all time, hire a software or mobile app development company that has know-how in HIPAA compliant software development. Such a team of specialists will not just create the application as per HIPAA compliance but also test the app correctly for every probable security threat.
• Functionalities such as two-factor login, and timeout the local session in the application would comply with HIPAA and provide evidence to the software application users about the security of your medical app.

Key Takeaways

You necessitate making a superior balance amid user accessibility with data protection, making the app interface both secure and effortless for the users to work with.

Double check the HIPAA regulations under the guidance of experienced technology and business analyst. The other option is to hire a proficient software development company like Technostacks, which is the best choice for HIPAA compliant app development. We will make clear to you how significant is HIPAA and PHI regulations for your application development project.

If you are looking for HIPAA compliant app development then you can inquiry us. Technostacks is a top mobile app development company in India & USA and we will give the best assistant for your business needs.