Last week Athem, Inc., the second largest health insurance company in the U.S., reported that hackers had accessed their servers and stolen Social Security numbers as well as the personal information of their clients. While no medical records were compromised, the breach could still affect tens of millions of people across the nation.
Unfortunately, data breaches like this are becoming all to common - and more often than not, it's because certain security measures like network monitoring and vulnerability assessments get put on the back burner. Lack of time and resource are often the contributing factors, and hackers love nothing more than to exploit these commonly overlooked/under-prioritized areas of a business's operations.
Because the most crucial component of healthcare technology is patient data protection, physician practices simply cannot afford a breach like Anthem's. More specifically, a practice cannot maintain its HIPAA compliance* unless it can show two things:
- It has undergone a network vulnerability assessment.
- Any risk areas within the practice's technology environment have been addressed and resolved.
That's where a managed services provider like TekLinks comes in. Here in our Health Services Group, we understand that physicians went to medical school to focus on treating patients, not worry about managing the technology that's supposed to help them do their job more effectively. That's why we've put together a team of specialized engineers who understand the business needs specific to healthcare in order to develop a technology strategy that will fit a tight budget as well as optimize network efficiency and strength.
Our healthcare engineers have the industry knowledge and experience to conduct a rigorous, comprehensive network assessment of a healthcare practice. We will also partner with the doctors and staff to remediate any vulnerabilities we find, as well as instate the necessary policies to maintain security best practices around protected health information (PHI).
*As stated in HIPAA Security Rule Section 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(A) and HIPAA Security Rule Section 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(B).
To learn more about our HIPAA Network Vulnerability Report services, business IT solutions, and data security strategies, download our information guide.
Questions? Call us at 877.301.3125 or email info@teklinks.com!
