New program accredits healthcare cloud services

Three healthcare cloud computing vendors are the first to be accredited for meeting best business practices, and complying with privacy and security requirements under HIPAA and the FedRamp federal government program governing cloud security.


Three healthcare cloud computing vendors are the first to be accredited for meeting best business practices, and complying with privacy and security requirements under HIPAA and the FedRamp federal government program governing cloud security.

The vendors—FIGmd, HealthcarePays Network and MedicaSoft—were beta sites for the new cloud services accreditation program from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission, which has 18 accreditation programs.

Many organizations have private clouds for storing data. But the public cloud market is different and vastly more complicated because data from an organization can be stored anywhere on hundreds of servers. When that data is wanted, it needs to be retrieved from all of those servers, says Lee Barrett, executive director of EHNAC.

Also See: Registries first to be Accredited for Best Business Practices

The new “Cloud-Enabled Accreditation Program,” or CEAP, is available only to organizations that have already gone through or will go through an existing EHNAC accreditation program, then also go through the FedRamp program. By itself, CEAP requires compliance with 74 unique criteria. The accreditation process includes site visits.

Major cloud vendors include Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle and IBM, among others, Barrett says. But smaller cloud services also are welcome to seek accreditation through the CEAP program, the development of which was guided by an industry advisory committee.

Other EHNAC accreditation programs cover accountable care organizations, registries, health information exchange, electronic prescribing, financial services, medical billers, third-party administrators, management service organizations, physician practice management systems and outsourced services.

 

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