HIPAA vs. HITRUST Framework: Comparing Key Differences | HITRUST

Overview of HITRUST and HIPAA

HITRUST and HIPAA often dominate the conversation when it comes to safeguarding sensitive healthcare data. HITRUST offers a comprehensive framework and an assurance program to help organizations manage risks and strengthen their security postures. HIPAA is a federal law aimed at protecting sensitive patient information.

Understanding the differences between HIPAA and HITRUST is crucial for healthcare organizations seeking to ensure data security, compliance, and trust. This blog explores HITRUST vs. HIPAA and explains how they work together to strengthen an organization's data protection strategy.

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is a United States federal law enacted in 1996 to protect the privacy and security of patient information. It establishes standards for the secure handling of protected health information (PHI) and applies to a wide range of healthcare entities, including healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses.

Key components of HIPAA

• Privacy rule: Governs the use and disclosure of PHI, ensuring that patients' personal data is handled with confidentiality.
• Security rule: Sets national standards for protecting electronic protected health information (ePHI), focusing on administrative, physical, and technical safeguards.
• Breach notification rule: Mandates organizations to notify affected individuals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and, in certain cases, the media in the event of a data breach.

What is HITRUST?

HITRUST is an information protection standards organization and certifying body. It was initially conceived to help healthcare organizations comply with HIPAA through its framework-based approach. HITRUST now offers a suite of assessments and certifications based on its threat-adaptive, industry-agnostic framework to help organizations across various industries, including healthcare, manage regulatory compliance and mitigate risk. Unlike HIPAA, which is a regulatory requirement, HITRUST is a voluntary certification that integrates multiple security standards into a unified, scalable approach.

Key components of HITRUST

• HITRUST CSF: The HITRUST framework integrates over 60 standards, including HIPAA, NIST, and ISO. It is frequently updated based on threat intelligence data to keep evolving with emerging threats.
• HITRUST Assurance Program: HITRUST offers a structured, scalable approach to evaluate and certify security postures through validated assessments. There are different assessment types for organizations of different sizes, needs, and risk profiles.

Who can benefit from HITRUST?

When exploring HITRUST vs. HIPAA, it’s safe to say that HIPAA applies to healthcare and related organizations, while HITRUST is beneficial for organizations across various sectors, including healthcare, financial services, technology, and more. Organizations that require HIPAA and HITRUST compliance benefit from HITRUST’s ability to unify multiple regulatory standards. HITRUST is also valuable for organizations looking to improve security measures, mitigate risk effectively, and demonstrate robust security practices through a reliable and trusted certification.

Differences between HIPAA and HITRUST

HITRUST and HIPAA differ in their authority, structure, and applicability. Let’s compare HITRUST vs. HIPAA and understand the key differences between the two.

1. Regulatory vs. framework

• HIPAA is a mandatory federal regulation in the United States, specifically for healthcare entities focused on PHI and ePHI.

• HITRUST provides a voluntary, comprehensive security framework that offers certifications and applies to any organization seeking enhanced data protection and regulatory compliance.

2. Requirement vs. assessments

• HIPAA sets the requirements that organizations must comply with. 

• HITRUST provides prescriptive controls to create a roadmap and offers scalable assessments that enable organizations to evaluate their preparedness and manage security and compliance needs.

How HIPAA and HITRUST work together

There may be a few differences between HIPAA and HITRUST, but they complement each other. HIPAA establishes the foundational requirements for protecting healthcare data. HITRUST builds on it and other authoritative sources to help organizations manage risk and compliance. Organizations can use HITRUST’s scalable approach to enhance their security postures and ensure HIPAA and HITRUST compliance.

Leveraging HITRUST Insights Reports

HITRUST offers Insights Reports that help organizations bridge the gap between HITRUST certification vs. HIPAA compliance. These reports provide a clear translation of HITRUST control requirements into the language of other frameworks, ensuring transparency and alignment.

• Custom mapping: HIPAA Insights Reports map HITRUST controls directly to HIPAA requirements, providing clear evidence of compliance.
• Transparency: Organizations gain a detailed view of which parts of HIPAA are addressed by HITRUST, reducing ambiguity.
• Enhanced stakeholder confidence: Results are validated by an independent third party and certified by HITRUST to ensure credibility and trust for effective stakeholder communication.

HITRUST vs. HIPAA: Outlook on healthcare compliance

HIPAA and HITRUST serve different but complementary purposes in the world of healthcare data protection. While HIPAA establishes the baseline for data security, HITRUST provides a robust, scalable approach that organizations can use to enhance their compliance and risk management strategies.

Ultimately, the decision should not be about HITRUST vs. HIPAA or choosing one over the other. Instead, organizations should work together with HITRUST and HIPAA for complementary benefits. By understanding and leveraging the strengths of both, organizations can achieve greater transparency, security, and trust.