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 w
eb 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 se
curity 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 forms
for 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 ac
cess 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 u
nencrypted 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:
Althea Carter is an aspiring writer and storyteller from Kentucky. Her passion for literature and storytelling began at a young age, and now she is an avid blogger and author, sharing her experiences and stories with readers from around the world. When she’s not creating content for her blog, Althea loves nothing more than exploring the complexities of the human experience through theatre, reading, painting, and travelling. She hopes her words and art can inspire others to create, explore, and experience the world around them.