Cloud computing is revolutionizing every facet of healthcare services. HIPAA-compliant storage, applications, and networks worldwide are trending toward the cloud, solving complex infrastructure issues and providing data protection.

Long Island Tech Solutions: What Is the Cloud?

The fundamental premise of the cloud is to provide a computing model that enables ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access. The cloud is a shared pool of configurable computing resources (servers, networks, storage, applications, and proprietary services) that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management or interaction with the provider.

Cloud compliance in the healthcare space remains a pivotal factor in protecting patient data. Cloud innovation continues to evolve, and lax protection cannot be permitted. There is no resolution in sight to the skyrocketing number of ransomware and malicious code attacks.

The following post highlights a few of the challenges and innovations healthcare organizations face in a world of increasing cloud adoption and rampant cyberattacks.

• Attacks Are on the Rise

• HIPAA Compliance

• Compliance in the Cloud

• Innovate in a Multi-Cloud World 

Across varied healthcare industries, personalized care (52%) and AI assistants (44%) were ranked as positively impacting cloud adoption.  Patient portals, mobility, and back-end development are actively leveraged to support groundbreaking cloud applications.

LI Tech Solutions provides breakthrough Managed Services Support for Long Island and worldwide healthcare.  LI Tech’s regulatory compliance division can equip your enterprise with proprietary hybrid cloud frameworks to mitigate the impact of malware attacks. (516) 210-6400

Healthcare cost constraints and cloud-based data protection solutions are being rapidly implemented worldwide. Ransomware, service denials, and other malicious codes are proliferating more than ever before.

Streamlining Healthcare Data Management with Managed IT Services in Long Island

Attacks Are on the Rise

Millions of individuals are being affected by extortion-based ransomware attacks carried out against healthcare companies:

• 48,000 patients of CarePointe Enterprises, an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist in Merrillville, Indiana, announced a ransomware attack on June 21, 2021
• Atlanta Allergy and Asthma reported an assault on 9,851 of its patients in January of 2021. 

Attacks against healthcare continue to escalate. SonicWall gave its mid-year threat assessment. In just the first six months of 2021:

• Cryptojacking increased by 23%
• Encrypted threats rose by 26%
• IoT attacks increased by 59%
• Ransomware rose by 151%

HIPAA Compliance

Healthcare organizations worldwide are under increasing pressure to meet the growing demands of patients and regulatory compliance.  Data security is a major factor in cloud deployment decisions for the majority of healthcare firms. Cost concerns placed a distant third.

Healthcare, across all industry verticals, must exercise caution when implementing cloud-based solutions. The HIPAA Privacy Rule vigorously protects an individual’s information in all electronic activities. 

HIPAA compliance requires healthcare systems to implement appropriate physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect PHI and ePHI.

Healthcare’s Digital Transformation: Why It Matters

New York City’s Best MSP: LI Tech Solutions (516) 210-6400

A substantial impediment to adopting cloud services is HIPAA’s treatment of external cloud partners. Healthcare Cloud vendors or subcontractors are required to secure an individual’s PHI in accordance with HIPAA standards. This element alone is intimidating to many smaller, under-resourced companies on the periphery of the Cloud.

The HIPAA Omnibus Rule is another fundamental safeguard of patient histories. Healthcare companies and their business associates/subcontractors must enter into a transaction agreement delineating the proposed uses of a patient’s personal healthcare information (PHI). If an associate violates HIPAA, the originating healthcare company can be held directly liable for the breach.

Technology functions differently in the healthcare space because of how electronic data is processed and stored.

Compliance in the Cloud: LI Tech Solutions Shows You How

HIPAA compliance in a world of accelerating advancements in cloud computing is a daunting task for every healthcare entity.

In 2014, NIST set a Cybersecurity framework for industries to establish cloud compliance within the HIPAA Rules and Regulations. Enterprising cyberattackers uncover loopholes that must be sealed by determined American IT companies. 

Framework Foundation:

• Identify personnel, devices, systems, and facilities, and define their importance to the organization and business objectives. Prioritize the organization’s cloud mission and its objectives. Define cybersecurity roles, responsibilities, and corresponding risk-management arrangements.

• Monitor regulatory risk and operational governance.

• Establish risk tolerances and cloud priorities.

• Ensure personnel are adequately trained to maintain cloud security obligations.

Innovate in a Multi-Cloud World

Healthcare is no longer a quaint little doctor sitting in a book-filled room, just down the street. Physician groups around the globe draw on the competence of countless other professionals connected to the unparalleled cloud foundation.

Regulatory frameworks, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and HITRUST, among others, provide protection for various patient-critical environments. Healthcare continues to adopt the cloud and sophisticated technologies on a global scale. 

Multi-cloud offerings and hybrid technologies from elite IT service companies, including LI Tech Solutions, enable real-time innovation and data leverage.  

5 HIPAA Mistakes Small Medical Practices Often Make 

LI Tech Solutions is an elite managed services provider for the healthcare sector in Long Island. (516) 210-6400

Managed IT services for nonprofits are an emerging technology area. LI Tech Solutions and other elite IT firms offer powerful implementation and consulting of deep-dive cloud frameworks. 

Machine learning and AI have become embedded in every facet of healthcare, providing powerful insights and network security. Unusual behavior can be identified in every application, user, and cloud workload to mitigate threats before damage is done.

Data encryption has become a strategic component of a layered approach to patient care. Organizations must map when each PHI file enters their network environment, where it is stored, and where it exits the network. 

HIPAA requires each healthcare company to encrypt and decrypt electronic health information for each of its patients. (ePHI)   

HIPAA does not specify the level of encryption required for PHI. However, industry best practices recommend AES-128, AES-256, or higher.

Key segments of the healthcare sector continue to identify shifting models built on multi-cloud architectures and HIPAA compliance. 

The implementation of advanced technologies within the cloud and healthcare R&D divisions remains robust yet challenging.