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HIPAA

What is HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which went into effect in 1996, demands that all healthcare institutions in the U.S. keep electronic patient files and records strictly confidential.  Another objective of HIPAA is to help workers and their families maintain health insurance coverage when they change or lose their jobs.  In 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began taking measures to enforce HIPAA.

Who is Affected by HIPAA?

Physicians and staff at most hospitals and clinics share terminals and access points, making it difficult to protect sensitive patient information as required by HIPAA. Also, systems used for patient care are connected to the network but are not protected by security technologies. To comply with HIPAA regulations, healthcare institutions need to monitor and control network access and what users can transmit or download.

HIPAA affects organizations besides health care providers and insurance companies. In fact, the legislation requires that any company that handles patient information must comply with the HIPAA privacy rule.

How Can McAfee HIPAA Security Solutions Help?

McAfee helps organizations comply with HIPAA security requirements and regulations by effectively and efficiently safeguarding servers, desktops, remote devices, networks, and applications against data breaches and intrusions that could disrupt operations and put patients and their confidential information at risk.

McAfee's Vulnerability Management solutions assist with finding, evaluating, and fixing HIPAA-related IT vulnerabilities and policy violations. In addition, McAfee's Risk and Compliance solutions provide a single, comprehensive view of your network to help you quickly identify HIPAA security risks, and saves time and money by automating time-consuming manual HIPAA auditing processes.

HIPAA Security Solutions Offered by McAfee:

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