Case Study 2: HIPAA and IT Audits

Imagine you are the Information Security Officer at a medium-sized hospital chain. The CEO and the other senior leadership of the company want to ensure that all of their hospitals are and remain HIPAA compliant. They are concerned about the HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules and its impact on the organization. You begin looking at the information provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, located at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/enforcement/index.html. Specifically, you are asked to provide an analysis of two (2) of the cases found here with emphasis on what was done to resolve the compliance issues.  

Section 1. Written Paper

Non-compliance with HIPAA regulations can result in significant fines and negative publicity. To help ensure that your organization remains in compliance with HIPAA regulations you have been asked to write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:

1a.    Create an overview of the HIPAA Security Rule and Privacy Rule.

1b.    Analyze the major types of incidents and breaches that occur based on the cases reported. 

1c.    Analyze the technical controls and the non-technical controls that are needed to mitigate the identified risks and vulnerabilities.

1d.    Analyze and describe the network architecture that is needed within an organization, including a medium-sized hospital, in order to be compliant with HIPAA regulations.

1e.    Analyze how a hospital is similar to and different from other organizations in regards to HIPAA compliance.

1f.    List the IT audit steps that need to be included in the organization’s overall IT audit plan to ensure compliance with HIPAA rules and regulations.

1g.    Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Section 2. Network Architecture

2a.    Create a network architecture diagram (using Visio or an open-source equivalent to Visio for creating diagrams), based on the description of the network architecture that you defined above for the organization to be compliant with HIPAA regulations.

2b.    Include in the diagram the switches, routers, firewalls, IDS / IPS, and any other devices needed for a compliant network architecture.