The HIPAA Security Rule establishes standards to protect electronic personal health information (PHI) that is created, received, used, or maintained by a covered entity. The Security Rule requires safeguards to ensure that health information remains confidential and secure.
Under the HIPAA Security Rule, rules can be created for HIPAA firewall controls, so that each employee’s computer will be configured with the suitable amount of network access. For example, an office manager may not need access to patient names but not their healthcare records, a healthcare provider needs to be able to access patient healthcare records when they are being treated. You can create firewall rules that allow the healthcare providers to have more access, due to their need-to-know, than other employees who do not need to access this. Firewall rules can be created for various positions, to ensure each employee is given appropriate access based on his or her role. Using HIPAA firewall controls ensures that only those people authorized to access PHI can.
HIPAA firewall controls are a necessary part of maintaining HIPAA compliance and securing your organization. Not implementing HIPAA firewall controls puts your organization at risk for costly breaches and fines.