How Can AXIS Help Your HIPAA Encryption Requirements?

Technical Safeguards is the area where AXIS helps your organization’s HIPAA encryption requirements and become/stay compliant with the various HIPAA laws as mentioned below:

ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION (A) – § 164.312(a)(2)(iv) 

Where this implementation specification is a reasonable and appropriate safeguard for a covered entity, the covered entity must:

“Implement a mechanism to encrypt and decrypt electronic protected health information.”

§ 164.312(b)
NOTE: The goal of encryption is to protect EPHI from being accessed and viewed by unauthorized users.

Encryption is a method of converting an original message of regular text into encoded text. The text is encrypted by means of an algorithm (i.e., type of procedure or formula). If information is encrypted,
there would be a low probability that anyone other than the receiving party who has the key to the code or access to another confidential process would be able to decrypt (i.e., translate) the text and convert it into plain,
comprehensible text.

  1. (e)
    1. 164.312(e)(1) (1) Standard: Transmission security. Implement technical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to electronic protected health information that is being transmitted over an electronic communications network.
    2. (2) Implementation specifications:
      1. 164.312(e)(2)(i) (i) Integrity controls (Addressable). Implement security measures to ensure that electronically transmitted electronic protected health information is not improperly modified without detection until disposed of.
      2. 164.312(e)(2)(ii) (ii) Encryption (Addressable). Implement a mechanism to encrypt electronic protected health information whenever deemed appropriate.

§170.210 Standards for health information technology to protect electronic health information created, maintained, and exchanged.

The Secretary adopts the following standards to protect electronic health information created, maintained, and exchanged:

(a) Encryption and decryption of electronic health information.

(1) General. A symmetric 128 bit fixed-block cipher algorithm capable of using a 128, 192, or 256 bit encryption key must be used.

(2) Exchange. An encrypted and integrity protected link must be implemented.

(b) Record actions related to electronic health information. The date, time, patient identification, and user identification must be recorded when electronic health information is created, modified, deleted, or printed; and an indication of which action(s) occurred must also be recorded.

(c) Verification that electronic health information has not been altered in transit. Standard. A secure hashing algorithm must be used to verify that electronic health information has not been altered in transit. The secure hash algorithm (SHA) used must be SHA-1 or higher.

(d) Cross-enterprise authentication. A cross-enterprise secure transaction that contains sufficient identity information such that the receiver can make access control decisions and produce detailed and accurate security audit trails must be used.

(e) Record treatment, payment, and health care operations disclosures. The date, time, patient identification, user identification, and a description of the disclosure must be recorded for disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations, as these terms are defined at 45 CFR 164.501.

 

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