Coalfire, HealthShare partner to offer compliance management services to healthcare customers

Coalfire and HealthShare Montana announced today their partnership to offer compliance management services to healthcare-provider customers across the State of Montana.

The new partnership will offer services through HIPAAcentral, a compliance management exchange developed with input from both the covered entity and business associate communities. HIPAAcentral provides a secure, business-to-business network with access to training, templates, white papers, alerts and other resources to track the complex and constantly changing security and compliance landscape. The platform is based on industry frameworks such as NIST 800-66, and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) audit protocol to meet the requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule, as well as the IT security-related requirements of the HITECH and Omnibus Rule.

"Coalfire is excited to partner with HealthShare Montana in what is quickly becoming the 'Angie's List' of healthcare compliance - HIPAAcentral. This is a game-changer for every organization in the healthcare ecosystem that faces HIPAA compliance obligations. Covered entities (CEs) get a cost-effective way to manage their compliance requirements while removing the hassle of continuous compliance monitoring," said Andrew Hicks, healthcare practice director at Coalfire. "Business associates and subcontractors get a quick and easy, 'one-and-done' solution for HIPAA compliance management with the benefit of high visibility in the market as a compliant provider of services," he went on to say.

As of Sept. 23, 2013, all covered entities, business associates and their subcontractors were required to be compliant with the HIPAA Omnibus Rule and are now facing increased financial and criminal penalties if they do not oblige. A survey conducted by Coalfire in the fall of 2013 found that a majority of business associates reported being somewhat or completely unaware of their new responsibilities under the final Omnibus Rule.

"Healthcare organizations of all types are facing increased HITECH Act compliance issues and are expected to closely monitor their vendors in order to assure patients' personal health records are protected," said Brad Putnam, executive director of HealthShare Montana. "By partnering with Coalfire, HealthShare Montana is providing Montana healthcare organizations with access to a tool to affordably and efficiently manage their technology vendors and protect their patient's personal health information. The risks of not managing your vendors are just too great to ignore any longer," he added.