Behind the scenes of a scaling business: 3 reasons to care about HITRUST data safeguards

Editor’s note: This commentary — the second in a four-part series — is sponsored and produced by LightEdge, a leading provider of enterprise-grade data center solutions — rooted in colocation and private cloud, and wrapped in security and compliance. The company delivers always-on internet with highly interconnected data centers, unmatched Compliance as a Service, and the balance of control and visibility to keep clients’ internal teams focused on strategic initiatives. The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.

The healthcare industry’s commitment to compliance is critical to protecting the private information of patients, but given that it applies to more than just hospitals and pharmacies, many companies’ compliance officers are overwhelmed with HIPAA compliance standards as they scale, and are struggling to stand out among their competition. HITRUST helps you do just that. 

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) was founded in 2007 with a mission to safeguard sensitive information, manage information risk, and establish unified compliance standards for organizations across all sectors, especially healthcare, throughout the third-party supply chain. Additionally, HITRUST fills the voids some of the HIPAA regulations do not address.

Still not sold? Here are three reasons why you should consider adding a HITRUST certification to your compliance arsenal. 

It’s the gold standard

HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is something that should be followed anyway. Being in the healthcare industry in any capacity and being HIPAA-compliant just isn’t special anymore. It’s the baseline, not a way for companies to go above and beyond for their customers. That’s where HITRUST changes the game, since it gives you a leg up in the selection process. 

One of the most important benefits is the credibility you gain by achieving this HITRUST certification. It gives clients and consumers peace of mind knowing that an organization has taken the initiative and approved steps necessary to protect sensitive data from being exploited or leaked.

HITRUST keeps you up-to-date beyond HIPAA

HITRUST acts like a fast pass so you can breeze through your compliance processes, since you’re already verified. A few of the benefits of achieving HITRUST CSF include:

• Up-to-date knowledge of the latest security risks
• Saved resources (both time and money) on audits
• Guaranteed, impenetrable security practices
• Elevated competitive advantage
• Consistency

While primarily associated with the healthcare field, HITRUST doesn’t just apply to HIPAA. The controls that you use to gain a HITRUST certification can help you on your way to other important compliance certifications for your industry.

Your cloud provider can make it easy

You may be able to find your way to HITRUST through your cloud service provider. Through a program called HITRUST Inheritance, you have the ability to inherit their portion of the certification. Be aware that there are two different types of inheritance that can help you achieve your own HITRUST certification:

1. External Inheritance: Enables hosting, cloud, and service providers to make assessment scores available for inheritance into any organization’s scores. This makes it seamless and automatic for an organization that partners with them.
2. Internal Inheritance: Gives organizations the ability to inherit control scores from one of their assessments and apply them to others, streamlining the process. Internal inheritance allows for flexibility by allowing organizations to assess parts of their organization and build upon them through inheritance into subsequent assessments.

By partnering with a HITRUST certified service provider, organizations like yours can reap the benefits of an inheritance program to simplify the journey to total compliance.

This commentary is sponsored and produced by LightEdge.

LightEdge offers HITRUST Inheritance to its customers, making it more simple to stand out among competitors and give customers peace of mind, knowing they can trust a customer’s organization with even their most sensitive information.