RRIA adds ZixGateway Inbound email scanner for unsecure protected health information

Zix Corporation (ZixCorp), (NASDAQ: ZIXI), the leader in email encryption services, announces that Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates (RRIA) has enhanced its current three-year contract by adding ZixGateway^TM Inbound, an appliance that automatically scans inbound email for unsecure protected health information (PHI).

“Recent legislation has increased compliance burdens on healthcare organizations and business associates, and ZixGateway Inbound helps to relieve some of that by providing a window into email vulnerabilities that would violate regulations”

The changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ushered in through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act have extended the security and privacy responsibilities to the business associate community. Business associates are outside business partners that perform functions or services on behalf of a healthcare organization. ZixGateway Inbound provides ZixCorp customers with an effective methodology of ensuring that all members of the community are taking their obligations to encrypt PHI in email seriously.

ZixGateway Inbound offers a tool to minimize the delivery of unsecure email by identifying vulnerabilities. If unsecure PHI is detected, ZixGateway Inbound sends an automatic notification to the compliance officer or security personnel at RRIA and its business associate, enabling both organizations to take action and prevent email breaches.

"With the identification of unsecure email, we take a proactive approach and reach out to our business partners, informing them of the privacy risks," said Ron Hosenfeld, Chief Information Officer for RRIA. "ZixGateway Inbound enables us to protect our patients, our partners and our practice, and we've received very positive feedback from our partners."

Under recent updates to the HITECH Act, healthcare organizations and business associates (BAs) can be fined up to $1.5 million for violating the rules protecting patient privacy, including a data breach resulting from unsecure email.

"Recent legislation has increased compliance burdens on healthcare organizations and business associates, and ZixGateway Inbound helps to relieve some of that by providing a window into email vulnerabilities that would violate regulations," said Rick Spurr, ZixCorp's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our goal in designing ZixGateway Inbound was to not only assist with compliance but enhance relationships between healthcare organizations and their business partners to achieve greater communication and, ultimately, greater patient privacy."

For secure outbound email, RRIA sends email to patients and business partners using ZixGateway, a policy-based email encryption appliance. Fully transparent email is delivered securely to business partners with ZixGateway. Other business partners and patients without email encryption capabilities use ZixPort^®, a secure Web portal, to access encrypted email.