Category: HIPPA Compliance

Healthcare facilities require robust IT services in Los Angeles in order to meet HIPAA regulations and patient expectations. One way for hospitals to cut costs is to use subscription-based cloud services. Leaders in global healthcare cloud computing include Amazon Web Services, General Electric, IBM, Oracle, and Salesforce. Here are reasons that local IT services should offer cloud services to healthcare organizations.

Healthcare’s Adoption of Cloud Computing

The growing interest among healthcare providers in cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms is associated with both lower costs and reduced tech support requirements. The cloud makes running any business more seamless and flexible in many ways. Third party software can be easily integrated into the cross-platform system and doctors have multiple options for communication with assistants throughout the facility. Here are several other reasons why hospitals and clinics can benefit from the cloud:

• High volume storage capacity
• Built-in scalability to accommodate businesses of any size
• Medical records can be accessed on different floors of a hospital
• Hospitals and clinics can store medical images with sharing options
• Ability to spend more time with patients

Geography of the Cloud

One of the most powerful aspects of the cloud is that it serves as a hub for businesses with multiple locations. This concept works exceptionally well for health care chains with facilities around the world. It allows for medical records to be easily accessed by different specialists in different locations. No longer does it take days to mail copies of medical records from one point to another. That means evaluation processes can be sped up, which is extremely beneficial to patients. North America has emerged as the largest market for healthcare computing, followed by Europe and Asia.

Demand for Cloud Services

Since healthcare businesses have an increasing interest in the cloud, IT services in Los Angeles can be integrated with cloud services to expand marketing lists and revenue. The healthcare cloud computing market is projected to rise from $3.73 billion in 2015 to $9.48 billion by 2020, reports industry researcher Markets and Markets.

One of the major reasons why cloud-based healthcare solutions are taking off is that it requires less expenses for medical software licenses. The cloud allows an organization to pay for one license that multiple devices can access while old fashioned local architecture requires fees for each machine. Another key cloud advantage is that it helps cardiology departments access and analyze historical patient data.

SaaS applications have become the most popular type of cloud services for storing healthcare data. Healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) services are also showing up on the industry’s radar due to reducing costs and improving reliability. Other reasons for this escalating interest in Business Process as Service (BPaaS) applications is the technology helps construct global delivery models and provide scalability, agility and access to secure data. BPaaS can be used for the following services:

• Customer relationship management
• E-commmerce, finance, and accounting
• Human resources and payments

Conclusion

Private cloud computing is the direction in which many healthcare providers are moving, so IT services in Los Angeles need to keep a close watch on this development. Contact us at Advanced Networks to find out how you can benefit from this phenomenon that cuts costs, makes work easier and generates more patient satisfaction.

The Government Holds You Responsible

IT services providers in Los Angeles have made it their business to follow legal guidelines pertaining to the tech industry completely. They know the law and they’re going to go above and beyond in order to ensure complete compliance. Here’s the thing: HIPAA is complicated, and it’s confusingly worded in some places to seem optional, while in others to seem ironclad. Usually, what seems optional has to do with means of implementation, but realistically, there isn’t anything that can be negotiated. If you’re found in violation of anything HIPAA-related, an audit could cost you quite a bit.

The government should be your friend, but reality isn’t fantasy land. The reality is there’s a cash-cow here, and bureaucrats with pens to push (or laptops to type on) are fully aware of this. Check this out: not only do hackers target healthcare practices for information specifically, but 9 out of 10 were subject to hacks in only a two-year period. Certainly, it’s bad enough having your information compromised, but do you want to have government fines thrown atop that as well? Because the nature of private information in healthcare providers’ servers is protected under HIPAA regulations, and the act’s confusing wording has in some part been responsible for these breaches.

The specific area where many healthcare providers trip up is entitled “Required and Addressable Specifications.” Why do healthcare providers trip over this? Well, it’s redundant. Why would something be addressable and required? The secondary word in the title implies compliance isn’t necessary, but that’s not how the section reads. So, many healthcare providers don’t implement that aspect of HIPAA, then get financially backhanded when the audit comes.

Office Compliance

Another area where businesses get undercut by HIPAA is office compliance measures. Sometimes, your information has to go out of state to a conference, and sometimes you’ve got to take it home with you. Oftentimes when this happens, you may end up neglecting to follow compliance protocols as you would in-house. If this is uncovered during an audit, expect it to be costly.
IT services companies in Los Angeles understand HIPAA backwards and forwards, and can help you save time, money, and perhaps even your practice. Make no mistake, though ostensibly for the protection of information among patients, HIPAA also represents an opportunity for the government to milk you till you’re almost dry, and in complete legality. When 9 out of 10 practices are subject to data breaches in a two-year span, the pencil-pusher in Washington who needs to come up with some funds basically has only to draw a name out of a hat.

HIPAA Differs by State

Another thing to keep in mind: HIPAA stipulations differ state by state. So, if your organization has a home office that seems to have its little ducks in a row when it comes to this bureaucratic detail, it turns out you can’t trust them implicitly— there’s likely some change between states. As a general rule, the more populous the state, the more stringent and complicated the legal measures surrounding HIPAA will be.

Finding an IT services provider in Los Angeles that’s experienced in these matters is fundamentally necessary. At Advanced Networks, we specialize in ensuring all practices are in full compliance, and even “go the extra mile.” Want to learn more? Contact us today!”