The rise in mobile app development has given doctors and patients a new way to get real-time health-related data and track health conditions.
According to a study, the pandemic has led to a 25% increase in health app downloads. The development process of a healthcare app requires regulation & permission in order to prevent and detect violations of rules. Thus, business owners prefer to hire a reputable healthcare app development company that builds healthcare compliance like HIPAA.
This blog post has discussed the compliances used in healthcare app development.
What Is Healthcare Compliance?
Healthcare compliance is a formal procedure that includes all the legal, ethical, and professional standards in the healthcare department. It is an ongoing process where healthcare organizations strive to prevent, detect, and solve any malware activity.
In other words, healthcare compliance gives information safety intending to provide a secure environment for users. Compliance is a comprehensive approach called healthcare governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC).
Healthcare compliance ensures the protection & safety of federal, state, and commercial insurance dollars from being misused. It also helps identify the issues, like medical coding or billing statements, at an early stage.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA) was enacted in 1996. The act has five following titles:
- Title 1- HIPAA Protects Health Insurance
- Title 2- HIPAA, known as the Administrative Simplification (AS) Provisions
- Title 3- Sets Guidelines for Pre-Tax Medical Spending Accounts
- Title 4- Sets Guidelines for Group Health Plans
- Title 5- Governs Company-Owned Life Insurance Policies
HIPAA is a federal law that builds national standards to safeguard patients’ data. The act consists of billing, information sharing, insurance coverage, and more.
HIPAA also has taxation-related provisions for medical expenses, and apps based on compliance have rules & regulations to ensure user data security and privacy.
Apart from it, HIPAA compliance provides better awareness of a patient’s physical well-being and trains staff members to handle the patient’s information. In short, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act includes the privacy of health information, security of electronic records, insurance portability, and administrative simplification.
Some More Healthcare App Compliances
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California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
CCPA is referred to as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It collects, access, and deletes the user’s data from an organization’s file and keeps patients in a loop by collecting the information, creating a free report, and deleting the data.
However, CCPA is a bit different from GDPR in terms of not demanding advance consent for email marketing, etc.
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HiTech Act
Another type of healthcare compliance is the HiTech Act, which conducts the processing, storing, and exchanging of the data related to the user’s health in an electronic environment.
This healthcare compliance is much more advanced than HIPAA in providing quality health care, decreasing paperwork, or preventing medical errors.
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NIST
NIST stands for National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is a different set of standards, tools, and technologies for securing healthcare applications.
Under the Department of Commerce, it is a non-regulatory association that develops standards for electronic health records and a smart electrical grid.
Concluding Words
Healthcare compliance can be a great initiative for providing protocols & standards to a medical healthcare app.
In a nutshell, creating healthcare compliance like HIPAA is imperative as it ensures data security and creates a secure environment for users.