Identity Theft News

Group releases security framework for health data

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) released a security framework for health care organizations to safeguard patient records as there is a federal push to bring everything online with electronic health records (EHR).

HITRUST, which includes health care providers, pharmacies and biotech firms, based the framework on standards such as COBIT, NIST and ISO 270001.

According to the alliance, the framework improves adoption rates with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and will hopefully increase patient confidence in their medical information being safe in an online network.

"It's tailored to protecting health information right out of the gate," Michael Wilson, vice president and chief information security officer of pharmaceutical distributor McKesson, told SCMagazineus.com. "It's just a different sort of data. It's still structured [like other verticals], but there's a lot more of it in health care."

News of the network security framework follows the passing of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill which has dedicated approximately $20 billion for health care institutions to embrace EHRs. One of the stipulations in the bill stated EHRs needed heightened security.

Recently, medical data was found on P2P networks by using simple search terms and containing patients' Social Security numbers and insurance carrier names, Wired.com reports.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19057227-ADNFCR

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