The headline of this post refers, of course, to Ventiv’s renewed HIPAA Security accreditation. I’m proud to announce that on November 1, Ventiv Technology was once again awarded the highest HIPAA Security accreditation: Full HIPAA Security (Business Associate and Covered Entity) Accreditation from URAC, a well-known, highly respected Washington, D.C.-based accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the health-care industry.
We’d love to show you our HIPAA Security accreditation; you can see it here on the URAC website. While you’re at it, we respectfully suggest you ask the other risk, claims and safety technology providers you work with (or are considering working with) to share their HIPAA accreditation with you. Why should you care about this certification? We think you should because it’s the standard that is recognized by state and federal regulators around health care data and privacy.
Ventiv first achieved the same URAC HIPAA Security accreditation on November 1, 2012 (it has to be verified annually and renewed every three years by URAC). At that time we were, to the best of our knowledge, the first and only provider of risk, claims and safety management software to achieve URAC Full HIPAA Security accreditation.
To the best of our knowledge, Ventiv is still the only risk management software vendor in those markets with this prestigious accreditation. It’s a time-intensive and costly investment on our part; we make the investment for the benefit of our clients and their growing needs around HIPAA.
We recognize that Ventiv Technology has a legal obligation to comply with HIPAA regulations; that’s because we consider Ventiv to be a HIPAA “covered entity.” Our position is that most, if not all, providers of risk, insurance and safety software are subject to the HIPAA/HITECH Acts. Yet, many in our industry believe there is an exemption, or “call out,” for risk and insurance management. We have found no such exceptions in the course of our extensive research and consultation with external firms that deal with HIPAA/HITECH.
Accreditation also demonstrates Ventiv’s unmatched commitment to protecting our clients' data. Here’s what that means to you:
- URAC HIPAA Security accreditation gives our clients the highest degree of confidence that all shared health-information data utilized for claim, risk and safety management purposes is safe, secure and private.
- Ventiv certifies that it has taken, and continues to take, the appropriate steps to safeguard protected health information (PHI). URAC HIPAA Security accreditation verifies Ventiv’s compliance efforts; measures Ventiv’s implementation of industry best practices; and accredits Ventiv’s HIPAA compliance processes.
Some firms will tell you they have “self-certified” their HIPAA compliance, but that's not recognized by state or federal regulators. Instead, we chose to pursue URAC HIPAA accreditation, the “gold standard” in health-care accreditation. The unquestioned credibility of our approach speaks for itself, we think. As part of the accreditation process, URAC benchmarked Ventiv Technology security and controls against nationally recognized standards.
To sum up, the Ventiv position is that risk, claims and safety data should be managed with the same level of security as any other data in your organization. We’d welcome the opportunity to tell you more about our HIPAA Security accreditation, as well as our other, equally stringent certifications, and what they mean to you. Don’t add risk to your claims and risk management departments by putting your data at risk; make sure your partners have the proper certifications around controls, data and security.
Stephen Rhee is Ventiv Technology's CEO. Contact Stephen at stephen.rhee@ventivtech.com.
