How the HITRUST Framework Supports HIPAA Compliance

How the HITRUST Framework Supports HIPAA Compliance

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As a non-profit organization, the Health Information Trust (HITRUST) Alliance provides data protection standards and certification programs to help organizations safeguard sensitive information.

HITRUST  is designed to help organizations manage their security risks and protect sensitive data. With the latest updates, companies can now map HIPAA Security, Privacy, and/or Breach Notification safeguards directly into their HITRUST e1 and i1 assessments (in addition to their r2 assessments), making compliance more efficient and reducing duplication of effort. This allows organizations to group HITRUST and HIPAA certifications or simply add one or more HIPAA safeguards into their HITRUST assessment objects—saving time and money for businesses navigating both standards.

Organizations worldwide have adopted the HITRUST CSF which maps to multiple, best practice control sets. A universal framework, the CSF offers a comprehensive, flexible, and efficient approach to validating and certifying an organization’s policies, processes, and operating effectiveness of controls to secure sensitive data. The HITRUST CSF is updated regularly, usually at least once per year, and is appropriate for organizations of any size, complexity, or control posture.


What Makes HITRUST a Reliable Framework?

HITRUST is regarded as a highly reliable prescriptive framework for organizations needing to demonstrate robust controls. Several enhancements were introduced in HITRUST’s MyCSF, including improvements to streamline assessments and increase the precision of control testing. These enhancements further solidify HITRUST’s commitment to providing a flexible and scalable solution. Key benefits include:

  • Lower the Chances of a Breach: HITRUST certification helps organizations protect, detect, respond to, and recover from potential cyberattacks. According to the HITRUST 2024 Trust Report, fewer than 1% (0.64%) of HITRUST-certified organizations have reported a breach in the past two years.
  • Align to Best Practices: The CSF harmonizes best practices, incorporating standards from HIPAA, NIST, PCI-DSS, ISO, and GDPR. With the ability to map HIPAA safeguards to HITRUST controls, organizations within any industry can streamline compliance, eliminating redundant work and reducing security gaps.
  • Foresee Emerging Threats: HITRUST is a threat-adaptive framework and is evolving to keep pace with new cyber threats. The latest enhancements to the HITRUST CSF report format ensure organizations receive clear, actionable insights into their security controls, allowing them to stay ahead of potential risks.
  • Follow a High-Quality Review Process: HITRUST assessments undergo rigorous reviews to affirm compliance with necessary standards. This ensures that certified systems meet high standards and deliver long-term security assurance.
  • Additional e1 and i1 Factors: Right now, eligible factors are HIPAA, including the security, privacy, and breach notification safeguards; NIST AI Risk Management Framework v1.0 and ISO/IEC 23894:2023, in a combined “AI Risk Management (RM)” compliance factor; and PHIPA – Canadian law governing how protected health information is collected, used, and stored in Ontario, Canada.

Going forward, HITRUST will continue to make additional authoritative sources available for insights reporting. Under consideration are StateRAMP’s moderate impact overlay of NIST 800-53 r5, GDPR, and HICP (Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices). (Assessed entities and external assessors can weigh in via this UserVoice forum).


HITRUST vs. SOC 2

Organizations often pursue SOC 2 reports, but it’s useful to understand how HITRUST and SOC 2 work together.

SOC 2 reports, governed by the AICPA, report on the implementation, design effectiveness, and operating effectiveness of controls to achieve criteria related to the trust services categories for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. However, SOC 2 does not provide control maturity-level scoring, meaning organizations can’t measure their control’s posture as precisely as they can with a HITRUST assessment. HITRUST certification, on the other hand, delivers a more comprehensive approach, offering control maturity-level insights and advantages beyond SOC 2. Additionally, the ability to map HIPAA, PHIPA, and/or AI into a HITRUST assessment further streamlines compliance.

HITRUST’s higher level of assurance can be a market differentiator, demonstrating the organization’s strong commitment to data security. Its incorporation of over 50 authoritative sources helps organizations demonstrate compliance across multiple standards with a single assessment.

How is the HITRUST Framework Unique?

The HITRUST CSF stands out due to its threat-adaptive nature, which is constantly evolving to keep pace with changing threats. It offers a comprehensive, scalable, and customizable approach, now enhanced by new features for e1 and i1 assessments in the MyCSF platform. These updates allow for more efficient assessments, especially for organizations looking to validate and report on implemented HIPAA controls. This streamlining saves time and money while elevating organizations’ abilities to secure sensitive data and maintain compliance.

Ready to Achieve HITRUST Certification?

At Insight Assurance, we specialize in guiding organizations through the HITRUST certification process. Contact us today for expert assistance with your HITRUST certification.

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