What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?
What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?
Protected health information (PHI) is any individually identifiable health information that is created, received, used, or disclosed by a healthcare provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, life insurer, school or university, or healthcare clearinghouse. This information can include a wide range of data, such as a person’s medical history, diagnosis, treatment, medications, and other health-related information. PHI is protected by federal and state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which establish strict rules for how PHI must be handled and protected to ensure the privacy and security of an individual’s health information. These rules apply to anyone who has access to PHI, and they are intended to help prevent the unauthorized disclosure or misuse of this sensitive information.
PHI in the Workplace
Healthcare providers must follow strict rules and regulations when it comes to working with and securing PHI. Depending on your location, these rules are established by US federal and state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or PIPEDA in Canada, or the GDPR in Europe. These regulations provide guidelines for how PHI (or all personal data in the case of GDPR), must be handled and protected to ensure the privacy and security of an individual’s health information.
To work with and secure PHI, healthcare providers must take a number of steps to ensure compliance with these rules. Some of the key steps that healthcare providers can take to work with and secure PHI include:
- Implementing policies and procedures for the handling and protection of PHI
- Training employees on HIPAA and other relevant laws and regulations
- Implementing technical safeguards to protect PHI, such as encryption and access controls
- Regularly monitoring and auditing the use and disclosure of PHI
- Responding promptly to any security incidents or breaches of PHI
By following these and other steps, healthcare providers can help to ensure that PHI is handled and protected in a responsible and compliant manner. This is important not only to comply with the law, but also to protect the privacy and security of patients and to maintain the trust and confidence of the healthcare community.
The Business Impact of PHI
PHI has a number of potential impacts on businesses, both positive and negative. On the positive side, PHI can provide businesses with valuable information that can be used to improve the quality and effectiveness of their products and services. For example, healthcare providers and other businesses in the healthcare industry may use PHI to develop new treatments, identify trends and patterns in patient health, and improve the accuracy of medical diagnoses.
However, PHI also carries certain risks and responsibilities for businesses. For example, HIPAA imposes strict rules and regulations on the handling and protection of PHI, and businesses that handle PHI must comply with these rules to avoid potential penalties and other legal consequences. Additionally, businesses must ensure the security and privacy of PHI to protect patients’ confidentiality and maintain the healthcare community’s trust and confidence. Failure to properly handle and protect PHI can have serious consequences for businesses, including financial penalties, reputational damage, and legal liability.
Saviynt & PHI
Saviynt Healthcare Identity Cloud (HIC) provides seamless identity management, accelerates implementation timeframes, and helps providers comply with necessary regulations with industry workflows and deep electronic healthcare record (EHR) platform integrations.
Intelligent Risk Analysis
Risk analysis and the implementation of risk-based controls are fundamental security requirements. Saviynt Healthcare Identity Cloud offers healthcare organizations a single, centralized Intelligent Identity Warehouse to meet these requirements. Saviynt’s solution ingests, normalizes and analyzes information based on risk by pulling disparate data points into a single repository, eliminating silos and streamlining security. Analyzed data includes access analytics, usage analytics, individual user activity, and inherent user risk from across the entire IT ecosystem, including cloud instances, UEBA, SIEM, CASB, and on-premises systems. Curating and combining these data sources into a single-pane-of-glass interface gives in-depth visibility into anomalous behavior and access.
Intelligent Compliance
HIC integrates natively with EHR platforms such as Cerner and Epic, while also integrating with the most business-critical ERP, IaaS, PaaS, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions used in the healthcare industry. The platform provides a single location for managing HIPAA, PIPEDA, GDPR, HITECH, PCI, SOX, and other compliance requirements and connects across cloud-based infrastructures so that the organization can maintain compliance with internal Separation of Duties (SoD) policies as well as external governmental and industry-standard requirements. Saviynt comes with over 250 security controls and risk signatures available out-of-the-box. These controls directly map back to industry standard compliance frameworks such as HIPAA, HITECH, and PCI. With our easily drag-and-drop interface, healthcare providers have a jump-start in configuring controls to meet compliance mandates.
Saviynt & Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)
Outsourcing may cut costs and maximize efficiency in a healthcare organization, but it requires diligence to ensure risk and compliance are properly managed, monitored, and continuously maintained. Healthcare Identity Cloud delivers a game-changing, one-stop solution for all contextual identity risk information. HIC provides strong Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) capabilities to protect your most sensitive information and increases organizational efficiency and agility by ensuring that the right people have the right access to the right resources for only the right amount of time.
HIC simplifies IGA by increasing organizational agility through automation and intuitive workflows. We do this by offering an identity and access governance platform that unifies identity governance capabilities into a single cloud-based solution. The solution provides visibility, IT efficiencies, and improved internal controls, reducing the risk of compromised credentials and audit failures.
Powered by a comprehensive identity warehouse and user experience to drive frictionless access, Saviynt Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) enables Zero Trust in your hybrid and multi-cloud environment by providing the following features:
How Does Saviynt Affect
Your Bottom Line?
Resources
