Hipaa Compliant Workspace Setup for Healthcare Providers

As a healthcare provider, setting up a HIPAA compliant workspace is crucial to protect sensitive patient information. This setup requires a secure physical space and careful consideration of technology and data storage.

A HIPAA compliant workspace should be located in a secure area that is not accessible to the public, such as a locked office or a designated healthcare area. This area should be free from distractions and interruptions to maintain confidentiality.

To ensure the workspace is secure, use a locked cabinet or safe to store sensitive documents and equipment. This is especially important for laptops and tablets that store electronic health records (EHRs).

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To ensure HIPAA compliance in your workspace, it's essential to implement robust security measures. Two-factor authentication is a must-have, recommended by HHS.gov for protecting electronic PHI. Enabling two-factor authentication will require users to enter a six-digit code from their phone every time they log in, significantly reducing the risk of password theft.

To implement two-factor authentication, you can use one of the following methods: security keys, Google Prompt, Google Authenticator, backup codes, a text message, or a phone call. This added layer of security will keep your electronic PHI safe, even if your password is compromised.

For email encryption, consider using S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), which ensures that emails are encrypted with keys specific to the recipient, making them readable only to the intended user. You can also set up compliance and routing rules to require outgoing messages to be signed and encrypted using S/MIME.

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Enhanced Security for Compute Resources is a crucial aspect of protecting sensitive data.

The compliance security profile enhancements for HIPAA apply to compute resources in the classic compute plane and the serverless compute plane in all regions.

LakeFlow Connect and Serverless egress control are two specific features that get enhanced security.

These features are designed to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and security of electronically protected health information, as required by the HIPAA Security Rule.

The HIPAA Security Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' electronic personal health information.

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App and Browser Extension Risk Assessment is a crucial security measure that helps identify potential threats to your data.

With SpinOne, you get a total apps risk assessment that helps to identify applications that are risky to your data and which applications have read, write, and delete permissions to your sensitive data. This also helps to reduce the risk of shadow IT applications being installed by end-users that bypass organizational policies and other best practices.

SpinOne provides full visibility and control to over 380,000 Apps and Browser Extensions assessed by our AI-algorithms. This allows your organization to have a completely automated auditing and risk assessment platform for any application that end users attempt to integrate with the Workspace environment containing PHI information.

SpinOne contains several features that help with app and browser extension risk assessment, including:

Is Voice compliant? Yes, the paid version of Google Voice is considered HIPAA compliant, allowing healthcare organizations to use it for PHI without breaching regulations.

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The free personal version of Google Voice, on the other hand, is not considered compliant and should not be used by healthcare providers for PHI.

It's essential to note that only the paid version of Google Voice meets the necessary standards for secure communication, so be sure to upgrade if you're a healthcare provider looking to use it.

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In a HIPAA compliant workspace, data processing and storage are crucial aspects to consider. Google maintains a shared responsibility model with Workspace customers, meaning customers are responsible for protecting their data.

There is no official backup solution provided by Google for enterprise-grade backups of Workspace data, including PHI. This is a critical consideration, especially when it comes to HIPAA concerns like data recovery in case of a ransomware attack.

According to HHS.gov, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can include provisions that address HIPAA concerns such as backup and data recovery. Some key features to consider include:

Consider implementing a SaaS Backup and Recovery solution to ensure your data is properly protected.

Data backups are crucial for protecting your data from unexpected events like ransomware attacks. You're responsible for protecting your data, according to Google's shared responsibility model.

Google doesn't provide an official backup solution for enterprise-grade backups of your Workspace data, including PHI. This is a concern for HIPAA compliance.

To address HIPAA concerns, having a Service Level Agreement (SLA) can be helpful. SLAs can include provisions for backup and data recovery, such as automatic backups 1-3x daily.

Encrypted backups are also essential, both in-flight and at-rest. This ensures your data remains secure.

Here are some key features to look for in a data backup solution:

Databricks permits the processing of PHI data if you enable the compliance security profile and add the HIPAA compliance standard as part of the configuration. This requires contacting your Databricks account team for more information.

To process PHI data on Databricks, it's your responsibility to have a BAA agreement with Databricks in place beforehand.

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You can process PHI data on Databricks by enabling the compliance security profile and adding the HIPAA compliance standard.

The preview features that are supported for processing of PHI data on Databricks include several key responsibilities that you'll need to fulfill.

To ensure HIPAA compliance, Gmail email needs to be encrypted, which can be achieved by configuring Google Workspace email encryption with Gmail.

Gmail uses TLS encryption, but Google can only guarantee the encryption of emails sent within Google's infrastructure.

Without administrative rules, emails sent to other service providers may not be encrypted if the recipient's email server doesn't support TLS encryption.

To guarantee encryption for all emails, including those sent to other service providers, you can create transport rules to disallow emails sent without TLS encryption.

Google offers a paid account feature called S/MIME, which provides additional encryption security beyond the basic TLS encryption offered by default.

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Vault is Google's eDiscovery and compliance solution for Google Workspace. It's used to retain, hold, search, and export data to support retention and eDiscovery activities.

Vault is only included in the Google Workspace enterprise plan, but it's an add-on for other plans if your organization chooses to purchase licenses for your users.

Google defines Vault as one of the services that are HIPAA compliant when used with other Google core services correctly configured for HIPAA.

Vault can be used in a sanctioned way to store PHI when used with other Google core services that are correctly configured for HIPAA.

Google doesn't provide a lot of information about specific Vault settings or configurations related to HIPAA.

Vault is a useful tool for storing and managing data, especially for organizations that need to comply with HIPAA regulations.

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Transactions and Code Sets are crucial for standardizing the electronic exchange of patient-identifiable information.

HIPAA Transactions and Code Set Rule outlines standards for code sets, which are based on electronic data interchange (EDI) standards that allow for the electronic exchange of information from computer to computer without human involvement.

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The International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition, is one of the code sets used for standardizing health-related information.

Current Procedural Terminology and HCFA Common Procedure Coding System are also used as code sets under the HIPAA Transactions and Code Set Rule.

HCFA Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) and Code on Dental Procedures, Nomenclature 2nd Edition, are other code sets used for standardizing electronic exchange of patient-identifiable information.

National Drug Codes are used for standardizing the electronic exchange of medication information.

Google Drive can be a reliable option for storing and processing sensitive data, but it's essential to ensure it's configured correctly to protect Protected Health Information (PHI).

To make Google Drive HIPAA compliant, you need to follow specific guidelines.

You should not put PHI into the titles of files, folders, or Team Drives.

Configuring visibility and permissions is crucial in protecting PHI stored on Google Drive.

This includes making sure only appropriate personnel have access to sensitive information.

Here are the key technical configuration aspects to consider:

To ensure your Google Workspace is HIPAA compliant, it's essential to configure it correctly. One of the most critical steps is to set the visibility level for your account.

Google Workspace admins should set the visibility level to "Private" to restrict how employees can share information outside the sanctioned domain. This includes setting a setting to off, which prevents users from sharing files with people outside your organization through invitations, links, and email attachments.

Setting the default visibility to Private is a must-have for HIPAA compliance. This will help prevent sensitive information from being shared outside your organization.

To further secure your Team Drives, restrict content sharing, even within Team Drives. This includes limiting and restricting who can download, copy, or print files in the Team Drive.

Here are some key configuration settings to enforce with Google Drive:

By configuring these settings correctly, you'll be well on your way to creating a HIPAA compliant Google Workspace environment.