If you’re in the healthcare industry, you’ll need to take extra precautions when designing HIPAA web forms. Violating HIPAA can carry steep fines and consequences, and result in negative publicity for your business. How can you make sure you create HIPAA web forms? Find out now!
1. You Must Use TLS Or SSL Protection
First things first, your connection to your patients and customers must be secured and encrypted. The best way to do this is to use the new HTTPS (HTTP Secured) standard, which uses advanced TLS encryption to prevent others on the same network from being able to access web traffic.
2. Data Should Be Sent To A Private, Secure And Encrypted Database
All of the data sent to you through your HIPAA web forms should be sent to a secure, encrypted private database, where the information can be stored securely. This information should never be cached or saved to your web server –and should be deleted from it regularly.
3. You Should Test The Security Of Your Forms And Website Regularly
Regular security testing is essential for ensuring you will not suffer from a serious data breach and reveal PHI (Protected Health Information) or other private patient information. You may want to consider hiring a security consultant to test your website and formsfor both safety and HIPAA Compliance.
4. Strong User Controls And Permissions Are A Must-Have
HIPAA sets forth strong restrictions about who can have access to patient information. You need to make sure that you set the proper restrictions on who can access data that is sent to you through your web forms –for example, contractors and third parties should not be able to see this information directly.
5. Don’t Send PHI Over Email
Protected Health Information should never be sent to anyone through an unencrypted email. This is a breach of HIPAA standards. Make sure that you do not send this information to your customers, or even internally –from sources like form completion notifications.
6. Use HIPAA-Compliant Passwords
Your staff should always use HIPAA-compliant passwords, and you should encourage your patients to do the same. A few of the recommended standards include:
● A minimum length of 8 characters
● No password hints
● Create memorable passwords to avoid having to write them down
● Vet passwords against commonly used passwords (e.g. “123456788”, “password”, “default”, “admin”, birthdays, etc.
Many data breaches are still caused by manual brute force password attacks, so strong passwords are essential for safeguarding your data, and HIPAA compliance.Use These Tips To Avoid HIPAA Fines And Protect Your Data Violating HIPAA has stiff penalties and fines –and protecting patient data should always be your first priority. So use these tips for HIPAA web forms to avoid incidents, and ensure your patients do not have their PHI compromised.
