As 2014 begins, hundreds of thousands of Americans are signing up for health insurances through the Health Insurance Marketplace initiative. Latest figures suggest that close to 2 million people have purchased insurance plans with the deadline to do so approaching quickly.

This influx of new patients means that healthcare providers and professionals will have to amend procedures they are accustomed to, so they can deliver quality care efficiently.

Healthcare organizations accumulate large volumes of personal health information. This information includes student records, financial information, tax, credit, background information, and other data. Owners of this information expect these organizations to be able to protect their personal data or PHI under any circumstances, and this is also mandated under HIPAA. Such compliance measures and safeguards are paramount in ensuring individuals’ confidence in the modern healthcare system.

HIPAA compliance is just one side of the story. A much bigger objective is to ensure complete security and privacy of the medium of information storage, most commonly the Cloud. The usage, access, transmission and storing of PHI should not be without proper governing laws. In fact, a Cloud vendor should treat all of its organizational data under the same strict privacy and security laws applicable to PHI.

Some of the privacy and security controls that Cloud vendors must maintain include:

• Sophisticated encryption tools
• Complex identification and authentication tools
• Data continuity and accessibility
• Restricting customer data access to the “absolute minimum”
• Rigorous internal and external audits

In addition to these, Cloud vendors must also provide clear and transparent contractual commitments related to the privacy and security of data, or if this information may be used later even if it’s depersonalized. They should not be scanning, mining, capturing or using the data for purposes other than its intended usages, like marketing or advertising.

In an ideal scenario, a proactive partnership must exist between Cloud vendors and the healthcare community including medical centers, providers, insurers and government agencies in order to understand the technology and how its features impact daily work.

Investment in Cloud technology as part of IT modernization can bring massive operational, infrastructural and cost-saving benefits for organizations in addition to driving meaningful communication with patients through Patient Portals.

The US healthcare ecosystem is expanding to include more participants and modern IT environments such as Cloud solutions which offer a positive transformation for healthcare interaction, management, and delivery.