The Best HIPAA Compliant Chat Software Solutions [2024]

Explore HIPAA Compliant Chat

Today where the chat apps have spread its wings across in popularity, the medicine field is no more an exception. With HIPAA compliant video streaming apps, now the patients can have secure real-time communication, wherein they can share their complete health information with their doctors.

Well, HIPAA compliant video streaming apps take care of privacy and data protection ensuring user’s trust with HIPAA compliance, to build a better chat experience. With HIPAA compliance healthcare chat api, it also provides end-to-end encryption security as an added layer of protection over in-app chat messaging.

This post is designed to get you more insight about the importance of HIPAA compliant chat api and building a hipaa chat software.

Now, let’s have a look at what HIPAA compliant is exactly all about to have a clear understanding before proceeding further.

What is HIPAA Compliant Texting App?

The Health Insurance and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that sets standards for sensitive patient data protection. The Digital healthcare chat app industry that works with Patient Health Information (PHI) must ensure security measures in place and follow them ensuring HIPAA Compliance.

It covers the entities that include provided treatment, payment, and operations in healthcare; and business associates like anyone who has access to PHI and provides support in treatment, payment, or operations, that must meet HIPAA Compliance.

To build HIPAA compliant chat app, you are supposed to sign up with a Business Associate Agreement with your API and SDK provider. This is so required for them to get your app to be with HIPAA Compliant.

Now, let’s have a small tutorial section on how to build HIPAA Compliant chat app.

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How to Build a HIPAA Compliant Chat

In general to make the best secure messaging chat app, you need to have end-to-end encryption being embedded into your app. But when it is about healthcare applications, your app must be with HIPAA Compliance too.

Moving forward with the section, you’ll be guided through how to build a HIPAA Compliant chat app, be it for a team chat, live chat, web chat, or group chat with more variety in security towards the conversations and shared data.

Making a HIPAA Compliant chat software can be a challenge most of the time especially due to it demands to have a lot of modifications on both features and design front.

To build HIPAA compliant video chat platform, you requires a below four primary rules:

• Privacy
• Security measures
• Enforcement
• Breach

Every healthcare business needs to have a look into all these four rules whenever planning to build in-app chat HIPAA compliant. Moreover, they majorly consist of physical and technical safeguards.

Physical Safeguards

The physical safeguard is all about protection concerning the backend, network for data transfer, and devices that are on iOS and Android. All this ensures the fact that they cannot be compromised, stolen, or lost. Here, to ensure application’s security, there is a need to enforce the authentication.

Technical Safeguards 

The technical side is all about end-to-end encryption of data that can be transferred or stored on servers as well as on devices. Below are some of the technical safeguards,

• Emergency access process
• A unique user identification
• Automatic logoff

With these physical and technical safeguard, you can have another best practice that follows the minimum necessity requirements, i.e., do not collect more data that is required and never store data for longer than needed. Also, avoid transmission of PHI data in push notifications.

Now, let’s have a look at the steps required to build a HIPAA video chat app.

Solutions Needed to Build HIPAA Compliant chat app

Let’s have a look at some of the key factors that are must while building the most secured chat app. This includes,

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A Need for a unique user authentication system

• A secure infrastructure
• Encryption of Data
• HIPAA Compliance

When you have got some awareness concerning the key requirements to build an in-app chat HIPAA compliant software, let’s have a look at the steps to create the same.

Steps to Build a HIPAA Compliant Chat Apps

Whatever be the application, the priority always depends upon a single concept of safeguarding the user’s data.

When you are building a HIPAA compliant website, there are several needs that need to be considered. Let’s take a look at them.

1) Transport Encryption with Hipaa compliant group chat 

While building a HIPAA compliant group chat software, it is integral to maintain all health related data encrypted in transmissions. The first step to achieve the same is to make use of HTTP protocols and SSL.

In the case of client-server data transfer, the data that needs to be transmitted will be encrypted on the sender’s front and then will be decrypted on the receiver’s side. This helps with the prevention of middle-man attacks. Moreover, it also transmits and stores the passwords in the hash value as a supportive safeguard compromising of data.

2) Need of a Backup  and its Hipaa Group Chat 

For any application, to have a backup of data with a recovery offer is something very much important. The hosting provider ensures that the data is not lost in case of emergency or accident.

For instance, if the web software sends the data across by mistake to somewhere else, then the messages will automatically get backed up, and further get stored securely, and also adds up accessibility to the authorized staff.

3) Authorization for Secure Hipaa Video Chat

Building a secure messaging HIPAA chat using healthcare chat API in a way where the authorization is well protected, is something great and secure in the long run. Some of the ways that you can do to have them are, audit the access control, secure the logins ensuring the data being accessed only by the authorized personnel, etc.

4) Integrity while Building Hipaa Video Chat App

While building a HIPAA compliant video streaming app, among so many steps it is one of the most essential steps where one has to make a check on infrastructure set up to ensure the collection, storage, and transfer of information to be safe with zero chances of alteration, whether could be intentionally or by mistaken.

It is mainly to ensure that the system can detect and report unauthorized data harm, even if there is change with a minute information. While building a HIPAA compliant website, the infrastructure must have elements in addition to the restriction of physical access with certain measures like encryption, regular backup, access authorization, etc.

5) Storage of data with Hipaa Encryption

One of the main rules of dealing with PHI is that it should be available only to authorized people. Under this, mostly all the data that is stored in the software system includes – backups, databases, and logs. Here, the industry backup encryption is applied with the help of RSA and AES algorithms with strong keys.

6) The final Disposal and How Hipaa Chat Exposed

The archived and backup data that has been expired will get disposed off permanently. Later these measures need to be considered to dispose of all the unused data in a safe and non-retrievable manner.

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Managing the PHI Collection, Transmission, Hipaa Chat Security and Storage

While planning for PHI management process, there needs to have a look at three situations,

Situation 1 – Where the information is in transit, i.e., between device and server – This is a situation where the modern cipher suites and TLS were made into use to manage data on the move.

Situation 2 – Where the information is on the server side – Once the data has entered the server storage, the provision will be made around the key rotation key management, encrypted backup, etc.

Situation 3 – When the data is at rest on device – Mostly, iOS and Android tends to store the data on disks whenever the network is offline. So, it is important to make a note that the data is well encrypted.

Well, with the above steps this would have been clear for you as what are the key steps that need to be made a note of to build a hipaa compliant texting app.

As we all know that there are various modes of communication – voice, video, and chat, but among all texting is something which is more often in use. Now, let’s have a look at the impact of this text messaging in terms of HIPAA.

Key Points for a Secured Hipaa Chat messaging

Of course, the healthcare industry is all about utilizing the combination of communication – whether it could be voice, video or texting. But among all, the unavoidable one is text messaging, this is so due to its several advantages. In general, text messaging is considered mostly as the message reaches the recipient immediately and can be detail-particular as on point.

However, HIPAA is not that expressive over here, thus preventing texting to communicate health information, but still it needs a system of physical, administrative, and technological safeguards to ensure privacy and security of PHI that’s communicated via text messages.

In earlier days the text messages are unsecure for so many reasons:

1. Lack encryption
2. Can send text messages easily to anybody and of course, sometimes there are chances to send to wrong numbers too by mistake
3. Retain messages with wireless carriers and usage of data on their servers
4. Possibility of hacking since the text messages are sent and received in “plain text”

Keeping all these in mind, there comes HIPAA Compliant in the play as a secure text messaging application. HIPAA compliant is a system of safeguard that alone is not one feature of a particular app or device.

Therefore, a healthcare company with HIPAA compliance ensures to cover the entities that are related to patient health information, and leakage of these information will be considered as part of the organization’s HIPAA compliance analysis, where the core responsibility will be of the organization.

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Wrapping Up

Well, from all the above sections, it is very much clear how to proceed further with the process to build a HIPAA compliant video streaming app. So, if you decide to go for your own Instant Messaging Chat Software with HIPAA compliant, then feel free to contact CONTUS MirrorFly, the real time HIPAA compliant healthcare messaging solution provider, who is there to provide you with the guidance to proceed further.

Moreover, if you want to have your own HIPAA video chat app, then MirrorFly is there to help you to build your secured messaging HIPAA chat app for a better start with your healthcare business.

So, think and decide upon the best choice.

Good Luck!

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