Source: Pharmaceutical Compliance Monitor On March 31, 2010 the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) rule, “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances” has revised its regulations to give physicians the choice of writing prescriptions for controlled substances the traditional method or through the electronic system. Originally, the regulation restricted physicians and practitioners from writing electronic prescriptions for controlled substances (EPCS).

In the 2018 Marvel film Black Panther, genius inventor Princess Shuri quips that “just because something works does not mean it cannot be improved.” It’s a message the healthcare industry has taken to heart, as it has continuously searched for ways to improve the patient experience.

Perhaps believing they’re simply too small for the government to consider, some smaller healthcare providers will choose to either fly under the radar or hope that regulators of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) won’t notice their lack of correct processes and controls. However, this likely won’t work—in fact, over 55% of HIPAA fines in 2022 were levied against small practices.

Though HITRUST released v11 of the HITRUST CSF back in January 2023, as of April 16, 2024, HITRUST released CSF v11.3. Standard practice is for HITRUST to update their CSF annually—at a minimum—and this v11.3 is a relatively minor revision with two main differences:

For any organization committed to robust cybersecurity hygiene, due diligence isn’t just for your interior systems, operations, facilities, and people—it also requires vetting your service relationships with suppliers to ensure they’re also secure. This is something Microsoft clearly understands, given their rigorous Supplier Security & Privacy Assurance (SSPA) Program they require. And for said suppliers participating in the SSPA Program, there are benefits to further extending your security compliance through HITRUST certification.

Successfully managing your HIPAA risk means accounting for those introduced by your vendors that are supplementing existing business processes in different ways. Vendors can make you vulnerable in a variety of ways, which means a variety of solutions becomes necessary.

As you may remember, when Tom Sawyer was asked to paint a fence, he ended up outsourcing the job and even got his chosen “vendors” to pay him for the privilege. What was an assigned chore ended up being done by others and turning a profit for Tom.

With over two decades of HIPAA history behind us, more than a decade of mandatory compliance and federal compliance enforcement, and a shortage of resources to help hospitals achieve compliance, the healthcare industry is still plagued by non-compliance issues every year—particularly regarding risk and access management.