HIPAA Compliant

[George K]

D2 (the one with the doctorate in clinical psych) has two computers - a MacBook Air and an iMac. She needs to have documents on both computers synced for work. For about 5 years she's been using SugarSync to have access to documents on both computers.

However, she's been told that her syncing is not HIPAA compliant and she needs something more secure.

Frankly, I don't know enough of the ins and outs of this to offer accurate advice.

Here are some screenshots of our conversation this afternoon.

[Jon]

I’m sure iCloud will be compliant. Why doesn’t she just use that?

[George K]

@Jon see her reply about the "HIPAA police."

[Mik]

There has to be some syncing app that has a BAA. The agreement is very common.

[Mik]

Here’s one.

https://www.sync.com/healthcare/

[George K]

I assume all these sync services are cloud-based.

Back in the day, when I was using SugarSync, all of my "synced" folders/documents were also stored locally, with the most recent version distributed among the three computers i had registered with the service.

I wonder if any of these allow you to have local storage in addition to cloud storage.

I'm reminded of the old saying "The 'cloud' is just another word for someone else's computer."

[Mik]

It would have to be cloud based for HIPAA.

[George K]

@Mik so her local storage on her computers was not HIPAA compliant???

[Mik]

Probably not. Was the computer administered by her facility? If it had facility approved security it might be, but this is her personal equipment, correct?

[George K]

@Mik said in HIPAA Compliant:

this is her personal equipment, correct?

That's right.

[George K]

I screenshotted the comments above and forwarded them to D2.

Here's our conversation this afternoon:

[Mik]

Sounds like she's on the right track.