Health Care Entities Are Moving to Cloud Hosting for Their Data and Mission-Critical Applications
Summary: Hosting pioneer AIS Network offers expertise in HIPAA/HITECH-compliant cloud hosting, services and disaster recovery. Research finds nearly one-third of health care sector decision-makers are using cloud-based applications.
McLean, Va., Sept. 16, 2014 — Keeping Protected Health Information (PHI) private, protected and always available is a priority for organizations in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. AIS Network, a leading provider of high-compliance secure cloud hosting, has found that an increasing number of organizations in these industries are leveraging the benefits of cloud-based applications for improved security and availability as well as for cost savings.
According to recent research, nearly one-third of health care sector decision-makers are already using cloud-based applications*, and according to CDW’s 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll, a majority of health care organizations utilizing the cloud say it has reduced their IT costs by an average of 20 percent annually.
“Cloud-based hosting for health care makes good business sense,” said AISN CEO Jay Atkinson. “Our health care customers point to quicker deployment and reduced expenses as key drivers for them. But at the end of the day, the health care market for cloud computing really didn’t start to grow until security concerns were addressed.”
“Health care leaders and IT decision-makers must be certain that their cloud hosting provider will meet the industry’s highest standards for stringent security, HIPAA compliance, high performance and critical superior managed service,” said Atkinson.
“Our experts understand our clients’ HIPAA compliance requirements and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance issues. Our goal is to function as an extension of our clients’ IT teams.”
Last fall, the new HIPAA rules went into effect, and the four-tier violation schedule increased minimum and maximum fines. Any health care entity found to be in willful neglect of compliance may be subject to mandatory fines beginning at $10,000. Violations that are not corrected promptly are subject to mandatory minimum fines starting at $50,000 and capped at $1.5 million.
With HIPAA privacy and security regulations impacting every health care industry entity — providers, clearinghouses, insurers, health plans, e-prescription networks, business associates — a cloud-based disaster recovery plan is the faster, more reliable, more affordable solution for safeguarding a health care entity’s infrastructure.
Security has been an overarching theme in relation to cloud computing and health care. According to the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMMS) 2013 Security Survey, just over half of health care groups have increased their security in the past year. Addressing security concerns in the maturing cloud market has been acknowledged as a driver of cloud growth.
But additionally, recent research (EMR Patient Impact Study, Aeffect & 88 Brand Partners, July 2013), has illustrated that Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are also a key factor driving cloud growth for multiple reasons:
- Almost half of patients consider EMR access when choosing a health care provider
- 82% of patients using EMRs believe they receive better quality care
- Repeat tests and treatments are often due to incomplete paper-based records
- Nurses using EMRs have seen a 45% reduction in documentation time
- Adverse drug events can be avoided when using EMRs to track medical history and flag patients
- Paper charts cost $8 per year while EMRs cost $2 per year
In an effort to be best prepared for potential threats, HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting providers can help be the watchful eye for vulnerabilities, helping a health care entity prevent a worst case scenario.
*(Source: HealthNewsDigest.com)
About AIS Network
AIS Network takes highly regulated businesses and governments to the cloud. AISN is the high compliance, secure cloud hosting expert serving large enterprises in the health care, pharmaceutical, government and financial industries, notably numerous international corporations and the Commonwealth of Virginia. When our clients’ highly regulated data, applications, payment portals and websites are simply too critical or complex to entrust to a commodity hosting provider, they call us for help. We engineer, customize and manage high-performance, secure cloud and disaster recovery solutions. Our clients never worry about whether their IT environment can pass a HIPAA, PCI, FISMA, SOX or other compliance audit, because we pass ours 100% of the time. We value highly giving our clients all of the personalized attention that they deserve, while also helping them to audit their infrastructure, reduce their IT compliance risk, avoid costly regulatory mistakes and lower costs for their business and their customers. Visit www.aisn.net.