The video conferencing software development market is booming. PRNewswire anticipates the global video conferencing market to reach $19.7 billion by 2030. It is a threefold increase from the reported $6.2 billion in 2021. Evidently, with the technology evolving, it will enter different industries. Healthcare is no exception.
Video conferencing integrated into healthcare software development brings forward telehealth solutions, another prospective market worth $89.3 billion. Entering and succeeding in the market requires high-grade app security and HIPAA compliance. Exploring in-depth insights on how to reach HIPAA compliance within the video conferencing software development process is crucial.
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What is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of regulations addressing patient data security issues. Experts develop instruments like HIPAA to ensure products using sensitive patient data have sufficient protection measures to avoid data breaches. HIPAA was enacted in 1996. It is constantly upgraded and improved to meet the requirements of the digital age. HIPAA emphasizes patient-based data transfer, compliance with confidentiality principles, adherence to consent rules, protection of billing information, and standardization of various administrative tasks.
HIPAA plays an integral role in software development and deployment cycles. To illustrate, you cannot avoid HIPAA compliance if you want to build a telemedicine app. HIPAA compliance is not optional. Inability to meet robust security standards results in massive fines and can even lead to criminal prosecution. So, HIPAA is important for software development in general, including telehealth software solutions.
Why Do You Need HIPAA for Video Conferencing Software Development?
The evidence shows that about 70% of patients have used video conferencing to connect with healthcare professionals in 2021. All platforms patients have used should be HIPAA compliant. Otherwise, those instruments won’t be secure. To illustrate, HIPAA is as important for developing a telemedicine platform as choosing the right tech stack.
Importance of HIPAA in General
HIPAA helps businesses avoid data breaches. The standard proved significant because of the rising trend in hacking and IT incidents (see Fig. 1.)
For any given system working with sensitive patient data, having a hacking incident means sensitive information will be lost, which can serve as the foundation for litigation. Significantly, even HIPAA-compliant healthcare systems can be hurt due to data breaches. Yet, following the rules and regulations offered by HIPAA minimizes such a chance. To understand the extent of the issue, in May 2022 alone, records of more than 4 million patients were exposed.
Another aspect points out that HIPAA’s significance is all about fines. Being HIPAA-incompliant costs a lot. The penalties can reach $16 million, and an entire dashboard shows all the instances of HIPAA violations. Being among the listed companies can be a major blow to your brand and product. Here are the latest updates showing the rising importance of the standard. Overall, HIPAA compliance is a significant step in saving money, saving the brand’s image, and ensuring proper cybersecurity measures.
Role in Video Conferencing Software Development
HIPAA plays a direct role in video conferencing software development if the end product relates to Protected Health Information (PHI) or Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI). You must seek HIPAA compliance if the mobile development services you require to deal with PHI or ePHI. The next step is to cover these two categories – covered entities or business associates.
The first one correlates to healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses. The second category covers data processing companies, data storage firms, and data transmission providers. HIPAA compliance is also a must if your product directly or indirectly relates to covered entities or business associates while dealing with PHI or ePHI. At this point, while many patient management products or healthcare software varieties exist, not all require HIPAA compliance.
HIPAA Compliance Checklist in Video Calls Healthcare App Development
It is time for the main event – the ten elements on the checklist required to ensure HIPAA compliance in the video conferencing software development process. The insights presented further can be used to ensure healthcare software HIPAA compliance in general.
1. End-to-End Encryption
Proper encryption of video conferencing software development is the bread and butter of cybersecurity. To meet HIPAA requirements, you have to use 256-bit AES encryption. It is an industry-grade protection standard for all on-meeting data.
2. Access Control
Preventing unauthorized access depends on access control. Use role-based access control (RBAC) standards for telehealth software solutions. It sets up permissions and privileges that manage access to the data shared within your video conferencing software development.
3. Peer-to-Peer Connectivity
Routing is another crucial element to consider. Does the video connection come through a server or directly? At this point, peer-to-peer routing grants a faster and more reliable connection. Yet, such a type of routing is impossible without end-to-end encryption.
4. Authentication
Authentication is the backbone of cybersecurity measures. The most common way of authentication is pairing passwords. Yet, to integrate more secure standards, consider biometric authentication. It can use facial features, fingerprints, voice, and keystrokes.
5. Data Transmission
Telehealth software solutions often require ePHI sharing and storing. It is when the sensitive patient data is most vulnerable. To keep ePHI transmission safe, couple 256-bit AES encryption with the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP).
6. Activity Logs
Working with ePHI requires detailed activity logs. Logging key actions, modifications, and access threads are vital for detecting security breaches and making the system more bulletproof.
7. Auditing
HIPAA compliance for software development requires proper auditing measures. You need to know how to create an audit trail to boost security. The entire video conferencing session must be captured and stored, including all the metadata, audio, and video. At the end of every audit, compile reports that can later be shown to HIPAA compliance officers.
8. Business Associate Agreements (BAAs)
Make sure you have a BAAs agreement. It shows that all parties involved in dealing with ePHI vouch to take proper security measures to safeguard patient information. Having BAAs partially takes away the weight of responsibility from your shoulders.
9. Accidental Violations
When working with different vendors and development teams, it is vital to have security sessions where you try to anticipate accidental violations by sharing HIPAA compliance rules. Otherwise, you can face the situation when someone from your team sends an accidental video conferencing invitation to a patient outside the project, which constitutes a HIPAA violation.
10. Integrity
Be consistent in following HIPAA guidelines for video conferencing software development. The elements mentioned above can be applied to many software applications. Keep in mind that violating HIPAA is way too costly compared to complying with it.
Future of Telehealth Software Solutions
A great future awaits telehealth and mHealth. Even though there are some issues the industry experiences, its prospects are vast (see Fig. 2).
Experts suggest there will not be such a term as “telehealth” in the future. Instead, it would be called “health.” Even a couple of decades from now, everyone will have access to healthcare everywhere. And developing HIPAA-compliant video conferencing software development can be a small step toward such a great future.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, HIPAA-compliant video conferencing software development can be only ten elements away. Do not underestimate the importance of HIPAA compliance. Ensure your product is protected, and your users know their sensitive information is under proper control and security. Otherwise, withholding HIPAA compliance can result in business damages you might have never encountered before.
