How to Comply With HIPAA: Software Testing Strategies

 HIPAA compliance testing software is a method to verify that software used by healthcare providers complies with all the security measures required by HIPAA and does not pose privacy risks for ePHI. From a simple web app or mobile app to an advanced IoT system that connects medical devices, any healthcare software that processes ePHI requires a HIPAA test for compliance.

Medical software firms (including SaMD and medical device manufacturers), healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical firms are among the majority of service customers. A HIPAA test for compliance is carried out in the following scenarios:

• When healthcare technology is new, it will be introduced to the market
• If the software used for healthcare is substantially modified, the changes could impact the software’s HIPAA compliance
• When official HIPAA requirements

Our Method of HIPAA Testing for Compliance

The HIPAA Security Rule comprises three principal protections:

• administrative (e.g., setting up security management processes and incident protocols).
• physical (e.g., access control to facilities, control, workstation usage, and device security).
• technical (e.g., implementing access control or introducing activity logs and audit controls).

Conformity with physical and administrative security measures requires the establishment of internal procedures. In addition, it depends on business partners and healthcare providers like IT contractors, accounting companies, billing service providers, and many more. To ensure that your company adheres to HIPAA physical and administrative security requirements, read this HIPAA compliance audit guide.

When testing your software for healthcare, PerfectionGeeks checks its compliance with the following HIPAA technical security measures:

Access control

• Unique user identification is required. PerfectionGeeks determines if all users have an individual name and ID number. This is essential for tracking and identifying users’ activities while a user is logged in to the system.
• Procedure for emergency access (required) PerfectionGeeks investigates the existence of written instructions for gaining emergency access to ePHI. Suppose access to the emergency is granted through the software examined to determine HIPAA compliance. In that case, PerfectionGeeks creates suitable test cases for each user role that needs access to ePHI in an emergency.
• Auto-logoff (addressable). The app will ensure that it ends the session at the end of a certain period of inactivity. This is essential to stop unauthorized individuals from accessing ePHI on a computer that is left idle.

Authentication

PerfectionGeeks uses positive test cases to confirm that the app grants access to users who are authorized (with PINs, passwords, or password tokens; smart cards; biometrics; keys; or other keys). Conversely, when using negative test scenarios (e.g., an empty password or ID field, an ID that is not valid, an expired password, or a blocked account), test engineers ensure that the application does not grant access to unauthorized users.

Audit control

PerfectionGeeks guarantees that activity logs document all activities that occur within the program, focusing on attempts to connect to ePHI. Our test engineers ensure that the logs include enough information about what users do while accessing ePHI, i.e., the full description of the modifications made and the information added. Additionally, we test the activity logs of different user roles that attempt to connect to the ePHI.