Last updated on March 22nd, 2024 at 06:08 am
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) aims to protect patient privacy and security. Healthcare organizations that handle sensitive patient data must comply with HIPAA rules. If you’re such an organization, you need robust, HIPAA-compliant cloud storage services to:
- Effectively handle vast amounts of sensitive patient data
- Ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations while handling such data
HIPAA Requirements for Cloud Storage Software
HIPAA requires healthcare providers to enforce rules that ensure the safety of sensitive protected health information (PHI). The same rules apply to cloud storage software. These rules are:
- Privacy Rule: this sets the standards for accessing PHI and protecting it from unauthorized access, alteration, or destruction. This rule requires you to implement appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of PHI. It also sets limits and conditions on how you can use or disclose such data.
- Security Rule: this rule sets the standard for protecting a person’s electronic protected health information (ePHI) that is created, received, or maintained by a covered entity. This rule requires you to implement appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for PHI. Its main goal is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and security of ePHI.
- Breach Notification Rule: this rule requires covered entities to notify patients when their PHI has been breached. A breach is any instance where their PHI has been accessed in a way that compromises their privacy and security.
If you’re a covered entity and share PHI with other businesses, you must enforce the above-mentioned rules using a “business associate agreement.”
HIPAA defines “business associates” as organizations or persons working with or providing services to a covered entity. If you’re a business associate, you’re subject to audits. You’ll also be accountable for a data breach and will suffer penalties for noncompliance.
If you’re using cloud storage software or a cloud service provider, HIPAA compliance is a must. Use a provider that adheres to HIPAA rules.
Important HIPAA Terms to Know
When digging into the importance of HIPAA and how you can comply with its rules, you’ll encounter the following terms:
Protected Health Information
PHI is a collection of data about the health or treatment of patients. This also includes healthcare-associated payments and other data created or stored by covered entities or associated businesses.
Covered Entities and Associated Businesses
Covered entities are organizations that create, process, and disclose PHI. These also include health plans, billing services, tech support companies, and healthcare providers. Business associates include sub-contracted or supporting companies that covered entities use for their operations.
Benefits of HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Storage Services
Using HIPAA-compliant cloud storage services is a must if your organization handles PHI. For one, PHI is increasingly being digitized (ePHI), and the sheer volume of data raises questions about HIPAA-compliant storage. This is where cloud storage services are important.
ePHI can be stored in on-premise storage, too, but cloud storage services are more efficient. The cloud offers a cost-effective and lightweight way to collect, analyze, and present data. It accelerates your daily operations and provides you with efficient and personalized care.
Your chosen storage service should meet all HIPAA requirements related to:
- Physical security
- Digital security
- Privacy
- Backup
- Authentication
- Administrative measures
While your storage service provider may be HIPAA compliant, you share half of the responsibility for compliance. Ask your vendor to sign a business associate agreement. This ensures they meet all requirements.
5 Best HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Storage Services
Choosing the best HIPAA-compliant cloud storage services is a must. But what are your options in the market? Let’s go through the four best cloud storage service providers you can try:
1. Kohezion
- The service offers HIPAA-compliant database software.
- You can build the exact app for your specific needs.
Kohezion offers low-code HIPAA-compliant database software that fits your exact requirements. Its low-code features enable you to create powerful apps even without deep programming knowledge. Also, its robust security measures protect your data from breaches and loss with 99.99% uptime.
This service’s IT infrastructure complies with the best standards in the market and partners with AWS to ensure it meets HIPAA requirements. Any cloud database app you build with Kohezion is secure and encrypted. Role and privilege administration systems are available, so you can easily prevent unauthorized access.
Kohezion also makes PHI available all the time for patients and those who truly require it. Its database tool lets you create a private online cloud database. It also has powerful backups using secure servers.
On top of that, you get a dedicated HIPAA-compliance team that provides priority support and 10 hours of free consulting to get you started. Experts are also always available to assist you in other projects.
2. Google Cloud Platform
- The service is known as Google Cloud SQL
Database options include: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server
Google Cloud SQL scales well with most organizations’ cloud computing needs. It offers robust support for Windows and Linux cloud computing requirements. It also boasts an impressive selection of AI and smart data analysis features that let you extract better data insights.
The Google Cloud Platform is one of the most secure places to store PHI and ePHI, thanks to the supervision of Google’s security engineers. Google also enters into Business Associate Agreements with its customers — another assurance that HIPAA compliance is one of their priorities.
3. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- The service is known as Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
Database options include: MySQL, NoSQL Tables, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MariaDB
AWS is a great choice for HIPAA compliance, thanks to its FedRAMP and NIST 800-53 certifications. They also offer Business Associate Added (BAA) services. This means you can digitally accept data access and your AWS account will be classified as a HIPAA account. You can access PHI from there.
AWS offers a Quick Start package that lets you deploy popular technologies on AWS quickly and optimally. These include Microsoft, SAP, IBM, and more. You also get detailed deployment guides that offer step-by-step installation instructions. These features make AWS one of the best cloud storage services in the market.
4. Microsoft Azure
- The service is known as Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Database options include: Microsoft SQL Server
The Azure Security & Compliance Blueprint helps you build HIPAA-compliant cloud data storage systems with their HITRUST certification. It features data encryption and a cybersecurity threat model and component reference architecture. These protect PHI and fortifies your database security.
Their one-command environment setup handles roles and assignments. It also discovers assets while creating the database and provides detailed step-by-step documentation. This lets you easily learn the ins and outs of the platform.
Their Data Migration Assistant makes data imports from legacy databases easier. This covers technologies like MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and others.
You also get a customer responsibility matrix alongside external compliance reports. With these features, you stay on the same page in terms of handling PHI. One drawback here is that it only accommodates Microsoft SQL server databases, though this doesn’t diminish the robustness of Azure significantly.
5. Alibaba Cloud
- The service is known as Alibaba Cloud Database Services
Database options include: MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, Oracle
Alibaba offers a Key Management Service, a fully managed encryption service. It lets you create, delete, and manage encrypted keys protecting PHI. You and your associated entities can use the encryption keys while accessing data.
It also has Action Trail, which lets you protect PHI through:
- Security analysis
- Intrusion detection
- Resource tracking
- Compliance audits
It records all activities like login information, login time, IP addresses, and failed attempts.
Meanwhile, Auto Scaling lets you meet your resource demands. This in turn lets you scale up or down your cloud computing resources at any time. Of course, this depends on your requirements for the increase or decrease in traffic or data volume.
Alibaba supports BAA for customers that require strict compliance with HIPAA requirements.
Why Consider Custom Cloud Storage Services
The best HIPAA-compliant storage services deliver above and beyond expectations. With that, you and your business associates can create your own HIPAA-compliant cloud storage solution in-house.
The users’ actions determine if they can achieve HIPAA compliance. These users may be the data owner, database owner, administrator, end-users, or business associates. Even if all data is taken care of in the cloud, issues can still arise if there are misconfigurations on the healthcare providers’ side.
A good way to fix this is creating and using a custom storage solution that you can completely control and share with associates. You also reap the following benefits:
- Cost-effectiveness: developing your own custom storage solution offers excellent ROI. Don’t pay large companies a fortune — simply pay for what you need and build what you want.
- Less overhead: custom HIPAA-compliant storage services are easy to design and administer. This lets you be less reliant on tech teams.
- Easy mastery: thanks to low-code technology, you can be a citizen developer and create cloud data storage solutions.
- High flexibility: custom cloud storage and databases are highly flexible. They’re future-proof, and you can scale them up or down depending on your cloud computing requirements and evolving HIPAA compliance rules.
- In-house support: if things go wrong, you won’t have to chase external support. Whoever designed the cloud database storage can easily resolve issues — you build it; you manage it.
There’s also the sheer convenience of designing your in-house HIPAA-compliant database. They can also be just as good — if not better — than other cloud storage services in the market.
Build a HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Storage Service with Kohezion
Using a HIPAA-compliant cloud storage service ensures your PHI stays private and secure. The best choices out there offer robust functionalities that let you prevent any unauthorized access to sensitive information and customize any database according to your needs.
If you’re looking to build your own HIPAA-compliant cloud storage solution, try Kohezion. It’s an online database platform that lets you build custom solutions quickly and cost-effectively. It’s safe, secure, and supportive — your HIPAA compliance requirements are easily met, plus you get top-notch support services. Check out Kohezion today.