About HIPAA

In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA"). HIPAA was designed to reduce the administrative costs of healthcare, to promote the confidentiality and portability of patient records, to develop standards for consistency in the health care industry, and to provide an incentive for electronic communications.

HIPAA applies to any health care providers, health plans and clearinghouses (collectively "Covered Entities") that electronically maintain or transmit health information pertaining to individuals. Covered Entities must have appropriate measures that address the physical, technical and administrative components of patient data privacy.

With the exception of small health plans, all Covered Entities must have data security standards in place by April 21, 2005. Small health plans are exempted until April 21, 2006.

iDataGuard online backup helps your health organization meet HIPAA compliance requirements

• All data, including patient and billing records are encrypted before they leave your computers and are never accessible without your encryption key. In addition, data transfers over the Internet are encrypted using SSL technology.
• Encrypted data is stored in state-of-the-art redundant data centers.
• Backups and restores are automated, eliminating the need for manual data handling.
• Detailed logs store information of each file backed up and restored, creating audit trails.
• CDs and DVDs of data are available for additional archiving.