HITECH is an ungraded and improvised version of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) that was implementes in 1996. Since then, most healthcare institutions have been adhering to it.

1. Importance of Following HITECH Compliance Guidelines
HITECH is an ungraded and improvised version of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act) that was implementes in 1996. Since then, most healthcare institutions have
been adhering to it. Congress initiated this act to secure the health insurance rights of workers that
were outdated.
HIPAA Concerns
The main concern that HIPAA faced was the broad interpretation that was taken by several insurers
and healthcare providers. This led to the unstable adoption by providers. People were not sure
whether they were compliant or not. Furthermore, the needs were still far from being explicit and
the enactments were very scarce.
The introduction of HITECH compliance policy
HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) was put in place in
2009 and made essential amendments to HIPAA. This act offers incentives for making use of
electronic health records. It broadens the scope of privacy and security that in available under
HIPAA. In addition to this, the penalty and liability for any kind of violation have been made strict
and notification standards are made even stricter. Hence, it has also changed the liabilities and
accountabilities of the Business Associates in the process.
As per HITECH, any kind of security breach can be defined as “an unapproved access, acquisition,
disclosure or use of secured health data. It compromises the privacy of the secure health
information barring the case where an unauthorized individual to whom such data is revealed would
not reasonably have been able to retain such information.”
Therefore, according to this definition any security breach that divulges the patient’s confidential
information would be subjected to serious results. Rigid penalties under HITECH compliance
guidelines will help the justification of funding required for the security and compliance projects that
otherwise might have been overlooked under undecided enactment under HIPAA.
How to be HITECH compliant?
Complying with HITECH guidelines might appear to be time consuming and a lengthy process.
Companies specializing in IT compliance management solutions have made the process easier. They
offer their users with solutions that need no investments on hardware or software. It can be
executed fast and all back up requirements or technical assistance are taken care of. They can
therefore enjoy all the services of new age compliant management solutions. It includes an in-built
HITECH support that can be easily expanded and gets updated automatically. The data is saved in
SaS 70 Type II secure data center and no electronic patient gets deleted from the client sites.