Established and experienced organizations typically have well-defined second and third lines of defense to identify control gaps and manage risks. With the rapid growth of cloud computing, the focus of compliance and audit programs has shifted to the assets stored in the cloud.
According to Vantage Market Research, the healthcare cloud computing market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 18.74% from 2021 to 2028, with an estimated market value of $128.19 billion by the end of the forecast period.
Healthcare organizations can utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS), a secure cloud platform, to promote innovation. At its core, AWS provides a vast array of HIPAA-compliant services to build highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and secure solutions that cater to many healthcare use cases.
As we delve deeper into maintaining HIPAA compliance in healthcare, it becomes clear that leveraging AWS services and features can significantly simplify the process. By doing so, companies can ensure their infrastructure aligns with HIPAA and other regulatory requirements and decrease the time it takes to conduct audits. Let us take a closer look at how AWS can help healthcare organizations meet their compliance needs.
Is AWS HIPAA Compliant?
AWS, a key player in the cloud services domain, complies with HIPAA regulations, meaning it can host cloud-based systems handling electronic personal health information (ePHI). However, using AWS services does not automatically make your solution HIPAA compliant. When dealing with ePHI in an AWS-based system, you must comply with AWS's HIPAA security requirements and regulations. Let us dive deeper into what it takes.
The best example is Relational Database Service (RDS). This fully managed database service simplifies database operations such as PostgreSQL and SQL Server in the cloud, and it is on the AWS HIPAA Eligible Services List. However, it does not guarantee compliance by default. You must still configure it for:
- Encryption at rest of the database, backups, read replicas, and snapshots using AWS KMS.
- Enabling and enforcing encryption in transit via SSL/TLS for secure connections.
Being HIPAA compliant on AWS depends on how well you can implement the necessary measures on the platform. AWS can help you create high-capacity systems that handle large amounts of ePHI while meeting HIPAA regulations.
Efficient Compliance with AWS: Simplified Audits and Centralized Measures
AWS has developed an extensive toolkit for compliance, streamlining the process and minimizing comprehensive audit durations. By implementing compliance policies, companies can efficiently propagate these tools across all structures, ensuring a centralized approach to compliance to guarantee the necessary compliance measures are in place throughout the organization.
The AWS Compliance Program helps customers understand the controls in place at AWS, ensuring security and compliance in the cloud by combining governance-focused and audit-friendly service features with relevant compliance or audit standards. One such service is AWS Config, which enables customers to create and operate within a secure AWS control environment.
Enforcing Compliance with AWS Config
AWS Config introduces the concept of a Conformance Pack that comprises rules created by AWS for specific industries. Organizations can achieve HIPAA compliance by utilizing the Conformance Pack for HIPAA with AWS Config and ensuring their architecture adheres to the best practices. This information helps conduct audits and identify areas that need improvement, which can then be transformed into actionable items to achieve HIPAA compliance.
The Conformance Pack automates checks for best practices, making it possible for organizations to comply with criteria outside the pre-defined pack by being "well-architected."
Key Pillars of AWS Well-Architectured Framework
| Operational Excellence | Security | Reliability | Performance Efficiency | Cost Optimization |
AWS also allows the creation of custom Conformance Packs with a range of AWS Config checks, enabling organizations to automate checks for policies that are typically assessed manually. By leveraging the cloud, organizations can execute these checks with minimal impact and ensure compliance.
For instance, suppose a company has multiple AWS accounts and a complex organizational structure. The organization may have internal compliance policies that require specific naming conventions and document review policies, among other things. More than relying on the HIPAA Conformance Pack may be required. So, creating a customized Conformance Pack that includes these policies and distributing them within the organization can help establish "policy as code."
By centralizing compliance in AWS, organizations can identify improvement areas and incorporate compliance-related fixes into their product roadmaps, bringing compliance closer to product development. This approach fosters department collaboration and avoids conflicts where compliance decisions impede product development.
In other words, the “policy as code” helps to improve the software development process by automatically and continuously providing evidence for compliance audits based on selected regulations. Implementing compliance as code involves defining compliance policies to be expressed as tests.
The elasticity of cloud services, particularly AWS, allows for real-time compliance assessment without the need for scheduled audits. However, this flexibility often intimidates people because they need help comprehending vast opportunities. As a result, numerous enterprise organizations perform audits close to releases, resulting in slower time-to-market and decreased overall velocity.
Compliance is a crucial aspect that cannot be ignored, and it becomes even more complex as each country has its regulations. AWS invests heavily in compliance automation to ensure the cloud adoption process remains efficient. AWS Config is a compliance automation service that offers significant benefits.
Audit Manager: Simplify How You Assess Risk and Compliance
AWS also offers Audit Manager, a service that simplifies assessing risk and compliance with regulations and industry standards by allowing you to continually evaluate your use of AWS.
AWS Audit Manager uses AWS Config to generate compliance reports that auditors can present and may take several months to complete for large organizations. However, AWS Config and Audit Manager collaborate to streamline the assessment process and save valuable time, delivering compliance reports more efficiently.
AWS Config + Audit Manager = Saved Costs and Time
Continuous Compliance Through Policy as Code and Compliance as Code
Using policy as code enables organizations to achieve continuous compliance without depending on scheduled audits or checks. This approach involves regular assessments for organizations to detect the impact of any changes made promptly. As a result, companies develop solutions with compliance factors considered from the beginning of the development process. Organizations can establish a more effective compliance framework by shifting compliance to the left and away from the final stages of product development.
On the bright side, the healthcare industry can benefit significantly from implementing automated checks at a scale. This can reduce the time spent on audits and shift compliance considerations to the beginning of the development process. Companies can establish a more efficient compliance framework by performing constant audit checks as early as possible. This approach also enables organizations to identify compliance issues in real time and make necessary adjustments without disrupting the development process. Implementing automated checks at scale can help businesses streamline their compliance efforts and focus on delivering high-quality healthcare services.
Using policy as code enables organizations to achieve continuous compliance and identify real-time issues without depending on scheduled audits or checks. The healthcare industry can benefit significantly from implementing automated checks at scale, reducing audit times, moving compliance considerations to the beginning of the development process, and helping businesses streamline their compliance efforts and focus on delivering high-quality healthcare services.
In Conclusion
AWS stands at the forefront of revolutionizing the healthcare industry, encouraging organizations to adopt cloud technology by providing automation tools that simplify compliance procedures. A left shift approach with AWS Config and Audit Manager identifies potential compliance issues before they escalate, streamlining the compliance process.
While AWS adheres to all necessary regulations, each company must ensure their solutions meet specific requirements. By adopting AWS Config methodologies, organizations can enhance their cloud presence, streamline compliance, and harness the cloud’s potential.
AWS offers a dynamic approach to healthcare compliance that encourages innovation while safeguarding sensitive data and streamlining the compliance process. With AWS, healthcare organizations can embrace a future of secure, compliant, and efficient cloud solutions.
