Full Answer
Why should your IT company become HITRUST certified?
Why Working With HITRUST-Certified Vendors Should be Your Priority
- HITRUST-Certified Vendors: A Cost-Effective Way to Mitigate Risk. HITRUST maintains a common security framework (CSF) by harmonizing all healthcare information security compliance standards.
- Increase Security and Maintain Compliance. ...
- Final Thoughts. ...
What is the typical cost for HITRUST certification?
The cost of HITRUST certification is split up between direct and indirect costs. Direct Costs. Direct costs include fees to the HITRUST organization and to your auditor/assessor. For SMEs, this can cost between $30,000 – $175,000 but can be a lot higher for larger businesses. Assessors can help you understand what evidence is required, set ...
What to know about the Hitrust rightstart program?
• The HITRUST RightStart Program is designed to streamline the risk management and compliance process enabling organizations to re-focus their resources on growth while simultaneously knowing that they are leveraging the most comprehensive compliance, security and privacy platform in the industry.
Will HITRUST CERT improve health care cybersecurity?
“Protecting health information is critical to the health plans we serve,” said Minal Patel, Founder and CEO of Abacus Insights. “Achieving the HITRUST CSF as well as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework certifications gives our health plan clients and their members confidence that their data will remain private and secure.
Who needs a HITRUST certification?
1. HITRUST compliance is required by all major healthcare payers in the US. No matter what your business does in the healthcare realm, it's crucial to know that HITRUST CSF certification is often required.
Why do you need HITRUST certification?
HITRUST Certifications are considered the gold standard in the industry because of the comprehensiveness and applicability of the control requirements, depth of the assurance process, and level of oversight that ensures accuracy.
Is HITRUST only for healthcare?
Although HITRUST has traditionally been focused on healthcare, the framework is now resonating with other industries as an enterprise risk management and/or third-party risk assurance solution.
What industries use HITRUST?
We are seeing more companies from the life sciences, financial, insurance, technology, and hospitality sectors approaching HITRUST.
What are HITRUST requirements?
Technical testing – HITRUST will require that you have implemented technical controls to help validate the security of your system. These may include quarterly or annual vulnerability testing, penetration testing, and annual checks on the technical security configuration of your systems.
What does it mean to be HITRUST certified?
HITRUST certification verifies that a company uses the strictest requirements with high risk data. In the event of a data breach or security lapse, you want to know that your company took as many precautionary steps as possible to uphold compliance and provide a secure environment for sensitive information.
What is the difference between HITRUST and HIPAA?
What Is the Difference Between HIPAA and HITRUST? Very simply put, HIPAA is an act that details the standards of compliance, while HITRUST CSF is a workable framework that helps you achieve compliance.
Is HITRUST and HIPAA same?
HITRUST, also known as the Health Information Trust Alliance, is not a law like HIPAA or HITECH. Instead, it is a well-known private organization.
Does HITRUST include HIPAA?
HITRUST includes elements from risk management frameworks like The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), HIPAA, NIST 800-53, NIST CsF, and ISO 27001.
Is HITRUST a cybersecurity framework?
HITRUST is a cybersecurity framework that seeks to unify the rules for many other existing regulatory and industry frameworks, including HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and more.
Is HITRUST a framework?
The foundation of all HITRUST programs and services is the HITRUST CSF, a certifiable framework that provides organizations globally a comprehensive, flexible, and efficient approach to regulatory/standards compliance and risk management.
What is a HITRUST audit?
A HITRUST assessment, or audit, helps healthcare organizations gauge their compliance with the Health Information Trust Alliance Common Security Framework (HITRUST CSF). Increasingly, clients expect assurances regarding the information security practices of healthcare organizations and their business associates.
What is the difference between HIPAA and HITRUST?
What Is the Difference Between HIPAA and HITRUST? Very simply put, HIPAA is an act that details the standards of compliance, while HITRUST CSF is a workable framework that helps you achieve compliance.
Does HITRUST replace HIPAA or meaningful use?
HITRUST does not replace HIPAA, but it can provide measurable criteria and objectives for applying "appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards."
How does HITRUST certification work?
HITRUST Certification means an organization has partnered with an authorized HITRUST External Assessor to pass a comprehensive security evaluation. Certification confirms that the organization has met all industry regulations while maintaining high standards of data loss prevention and information risk management.
Is HITRUST a cybersecurity framework?
HITRUST is a cybersecurity framework that seeks to unify the rules for many other existing regulatory and industry frameworks, including HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and more.
How to get a HITRUST certification?
If you’re interested in HITRUST certification, the first step is to contact HITRUST directly as well as conduct research on what type of certification you need. What level of security do your vendors or business partners require? Next, get in touch with a HITRUST assessor. HITRUST will help establish a relationship between your company and an approved assessment firm. Lastly, begin researching the CSF and how it fits with your company’s needs and goals.
What certifications can HITRUST fulfill?
HITRUST certification, depending on the assessment and plan chosen, can fulfill HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and COBIT.
What is HITRUST?
HITRUST began in 2007 as a non-profit entity seeking to help healthcare providers and insurers better protect their electronic personal health information (ePHI) and systems. HITRUST develops standards, frameworks, and methodologies related to information security, as well as providing training and tools for small and large businesses. The CSF helps entities identify and analyze systems to better address security threats. As of 2018, 81 percent of US hospitals and 83 percent of US health plans adopted the CSF. Even if you aren’t in the healthcare industry, HITRUST offers many resources and services for risk management.
How many controls are there in HITRUST?
HITRUST Certification Options. The CSF includes 14 control categories, 46 control objectives, and 149 controls. For each control, there are 3 levels. However, not all of the objectives and controls are applied to every company that chooses to start the certification process.
Can a company certify multiple departments?
For example, a company can choose to certify one department, multiple departments, or the entire company. For small businesses, complete certification may be possible, but for larger businesses, it is recommended to limit the scope of assessment by department.
How to be in compliance with HITRUST?
In order for organizations to be in compliance with the HITRUST certification requirements, they must put the stipulations laid out in the framework into practice. Meeting these standards is different for all organizations depending on a particular company’s level of risk on the various controls across all domains.
Why is HITRUST important?
As concern over data-related liability costs, inconsistent standards and security breaches continues to grow, the HITRUST common security framework provides important benefits by furnishing a robust and comprehensive set of standards that your company can implement. As a result, you and your management team will be able to determine vulnerabilities, adjust policies and procedures, gather resources and implement and maintain protocols. Once you are able to demonstrate compliance, your stakeholders will have the added assurance that comes with knowing they have entrusted their data to an organization that meets or exceeds all industry security specifications.
How many domains are there in the HITRUST CSF?
In order to help companies organize their priorities, the HITRUST CSF is broken down into 19 distinct HITRUST domains that all must be addressed in order to comply with HITRUST certification requirements. These include the following:
How many controls are there in the HITRUST framework?
Furthermore, the framework also contains 75 control objectives and 156 specific HITRUST controls.
What is HITRUST myCSF?
During the self-assessment, an organization uses the HITRUST myCSF tool as a guide to assess its own unique environment and needs. This tool is patterned after the structure of the ISO 27001 standard with its 11 control clauses, with additional categories to take privacy practices, risk management and establishing an information security management program into consideration. At the end of the test, suggestions are provided that cover areas of strength in relation to the relevant standards as well as specific elements that need to be improved.
Why is the health information trust important?
The protection of patient data is of paramount importance to any company that operates in the healthcare sector. In order to streamline the complex process of complying with a wide range of security standards, representatives from information security , technology, business and healthcare formed a consortium known as the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST).
Can a company be HIPAA certified?
Organizations in health or related industries often want to demonstrate the fact that they have complied with HIPAA and other accepted standards. To that end, a company can conduct their own self-assessment of compliance, the lowest level. For a more rigorous set of proofs, they can also become HITRUST CSF Validated or HITRUST CSF Certified. It is important to understand the differences among these steps.
Who Needs HITRUST Certification?
Most organizations seek HITRUST certification at the request of a valued client or business partner . Historically, HITRUST has been more prevalent in the healthcare industry where HIPAA is the driving force for compliance. Recent revisions of the CSF have improved coverage of frameworks which make the CSF and HITRUST certification more universal in nature. For example, the specific targeting of NIST 800-171 in the i1 assessment is a clear indicator HITRUST is working to gain traction in the government and defense spaces.
What are the HITRUST Certification Requirements?
To achieve any HITRUST certification, the organization must exceed baseline scores for certification for requirements that are distributed across various domains. HITRUST scoping is more complex for the r2 assessment due to the usage of five different levels of maturity vs. one level of maturity for the i1 assessment.
What is HITRUST Certified?
Put simply, HITRUST Certified organizations demonstrate compliance with a prescriptive set of requirements at a prescribed level of maturity in a manner intended to provide a moderate to high level of assurance depending on the level of certification desired.
How Do the HITRUST Certifications Differ?
The chart below provides a high-level overview of the various assessment (and certification) options available in the HITRUST portfolio of services:
Why Do Organizations Need HITRUST Certification?
However, we strongly suggest organizations consider the options available to them as HITRUST certification is a significant investment in both time, resources and capital, and should not be taken lightly. Quite often, SOC 2 is used as a stepping stone to get an organization into the “compliance mindset”. Bottom line is that there are other options or audits that a business may use to evidence its control environment used to secure sensitive data. Read here to learn more about the differences between SOC 2 and HITRUST.
What is the Process for Completing a Validated HITRUST Assessment?
At this point, let’s assume you have performed a self/readiness assessment, remediated any control gaps, obtained access to the MyCSF tool, and engaged a Certified CSF Assessor.
How Long Does It Take to Become HITRUST Certified?
For most organizations pursuing certification for the first time, it will take six to nine months to prepare for the assessment (which includes performing a readiness assessment and remediation and allowing for the settling period required by HITRUST), and then another three months to complete the validated assessment and obtain certification. Due to differences in level of effort, the r2 assessment will naturally take longer to prepare for because of the multiple levels of maturity involved in the assessment. Preparation for an i1 assessment is expected to be more in line with preparations for a SOC 2 audit, which generally takes two to six months to prepare for, and then another four to six weeks to complete the assessment.
What is a HITRUST CSF assessment?
HITRUST CSF assessment provides organizations with a means to assess and communicate their current state of security and compliance with external entities along with CAPs to address any identified gaps. An organization can, using the services of an Authorized External Assessor or by performing a self-assessment, conduct an assessment against the HITRUST CSF and have the results reported by HITRUST under the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program. The assessed entity is not required by HITRUST to meet all the security and privacy control requirements contained within the HITRUST CSF. Instead, HITRUST CSF assessments provide the assessed entity and the relying entity with a snapshot into the current state of security, privacy, and compliance of the assessed entity.
What is a HITRUST CSF?
HITRUST participating organizations are those organizations that have adopted the HITRUST CSF as their security, privacy, and compliance framework for use internally and/or by third parties. Under the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program, a HITRUST participating organization’s responsibilities include:
How often do you need to reassess a HITRUST CSF?
HITRUST requires that assessed entities conduct a complete re-assessment every second year. Re-assessments could occur sooner pending evaluation of a data security breach or significant change in the organization’s operating environment as determined by the HITRUST External Assessor’s professional judgment. For example, a full re-assessment may be required annually for an organization that is expanding operations (naturally or through mergers and acquisitions) or changing its environment and systems extensively and rapidly. In no event shall the interval between re-assessments exceed 24 months. The process for the re-assessment will follow the original assessment process specified under the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program.
What is a CSF assurance program?
The HITRUST CSF Assurance Program utilizes a common set of information security and privacy requirements with standardized assessment and reporting processes accepted and adopted by organizations and assessors. Through the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program, organizations and business partners can improve efficiencies and reduce the number and costs of security and privacy assessments.
Can a HITRUST audit be leveraged?
Recently completed audits and/or assessments covering some or all of the control areas included in the scope of a HITRUST validated assessment can possibly be leveraged (relied upon or inherited) by the external assessor. Reliance on the results of such efforts can benefit the assessed entity as well as the external assessor, as duplicative assessment-related requests and interviews can be minimized.
