January 2020 Summaries

Technology has significantly altered how businesses operate, healthcare is delivered, and data is managed, but it also raises concerns about unauthorized access to protected health information (PHI). The U.S. government established the HIPAA Security Rule to safeguard PHI, which includes 18 identifiers that can be used to recognize, contact, or locate individuals, by mandating physical, technical, and administrative safeguards. Organizations handling PHI, known as covered entities, such as health plan providers and healthcare clearinghouses, must comply with these safeguards to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of electronic PHI and protect against unauthorized disclosures. The rule also extends to business associates involved in processing PHI on behalf of covered entities. Compliance involves implementing administrative safeguards like workforce training and risk analysis, physical safeguards such as device security and access control, and technical safeguards like authentication and transmission security. These measures collectively aim to mitigate internal and external threats, ensuring that PHI remains secure and private in the digital age.

PubNub has announced the general availability of its support for Apple's HTTP/2-based Push Notification Service (APNS), allowing all customers to benefit from enhanced speed, simplicity, and flexibility for live notifications. This new implementation eliminates the cumbersome and maintenance-heavy setup of certificates required by the older APNS version and simplifies the process by enabling developers to manage push notifications to multiple iOS-based applications using a single token and PubNub key. The transition to APNS2 offers improved speed, higher throughput, reduced latency, and allows sending more data in notifications, thus enhancing the developer experience by reducing errors, lowering costs, and streamlining connectivity between PubNub and APNS. Existing users of APNS1 will need to transition to APNS2, as PubNub no longer supports the creation of new APNS1 keysets, and those who participated in the Early Adopter program are advised to contact PubNub Support for migration assistance.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), enacted in 1996, aims to protect the privacy and security of patients' identifiable health information, covering a wide range of data including medical conditions, treatments, and personal identifiers. The Act consists of five titles addressing various aspects such as insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, electronic health data security, tax-related healthcare guidelines, insurance reforms, and regulations on business-owned insurance plans. HIPAA mandates that any business handling protected health information (PHI) must comply with its standards, which include both technological measures like encryption and physical and administrative safeguards to prevent data breaches. Non-compliance can lead to substantial fines, and businesses must ensure that their electronic communications meet HIPAA's encryption guidelines. Additionally, HIPAA allows individuals to access and request modifications to their health records, necessitating businesses to manage record requests within specified timeframes and to transparently disclose how patient data is used and shared.