PCI Compliance & Certification for Healthcare Providers

PCI Compliance & Certification for Healthcare Providers

PCI compliance & certification for healthcare providers is a strict mandate if such entities are storing, processing, and/or transmitting cardholder data. The healthcare industry is incredibly large, complex, and bureaucratic, ultimately creating immense challenges for regulatory compliance, especially with the PCI DSS provisions. From small, single office practitioners to large Third Party Administrators (TPA) of medical claims, you need to get the facts about PCI compliance, and it’s why pcipolicyportal.com offers the following best practices and guidelines for helping healthcare providers become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

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Before you dive into the 9 essential points you need to know about for PCI compliance and certification for healthcare providers, keep in mind that complying with the actual Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) is often a time-consuming process because of one large issue – documentation. Specifically, you need PCI policies and procedures, forms, checklists, and other essential materials for compliance, and that’s exactly what you’ll receive when downloading the award-winning PCI Compliance Toolkit for Healthcare Providers today at pcipolicyportal.com.

Ditch the thought of having to write information security policies and procedures from scratch, it’s simply not necessary with our toolkits. Moreover, you’ll receive everything you need – policies, procedures, forms, checklists, risk assessment documents, security awareness training materials, business continuity and disaster recovery documents, and so much more – so visit pcipolicyportal.com today.

PCI Compliance & Certification for Healthcare Providers – 9 Things to Know

1. Compliance is Mandatory: First things first, and if you are storing, processing, and/or transmitting cardholder data (i.e., credit card information), then becoming compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) is a strict mandate – no options. With heavy fines looming for non-compliance, can you really afford to ignore the PCI DSS standards – probably not, so now’s the time to get serious about data security and pcipolicyportal.com can help.

While there are technically millions of Merchant ID’s (MIDS) currently assigned to businesses throughout North America – and only a handful of personnel responsible for enforcement within each of the major payment gateways – mandating PCI DSS compliance has been a challenge, to say the least. Even with that said, payment gateways, processors, ISO’s, acquiring banks – everyone in the payment lifecycle – are getting smarter, stricter, and more demanding when it comes to complying with PCI. Huge fines and penalties are being handed out for non-compliance, so keep this in mind should you decide to continue to ignore the warnings.

2. Understand the Merchant vs. Service Provider Scenario: First and foremost, you’ll need to identify your status in terms of PCI DSS compliance. Are you a merchant or a service provider? What’s the difference and are their actual reporting differences? For an ounce of clarity and simplicity, note that merchants are defined as the following: Any entity that accepts payment cards bearing the logos of any of the five members of PCI SSC (American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard or Visa) as payment for goods and/or services. Note that a merchant that accepts payment cards as payment for goods and/or services can also be a service provider, if the services sold result in storing, processing, or transmitting cardholder data on behalf of other merchants or service providers.

3. SAQ vs. Onsite Assessments: If you’ve taken the time to determine your “level” for PCI DSS compliance, then you’re well aware of the four (4) respective levels for compliance, Level’s 1 – 4. While most merchants – if you are defined as a merchant – can self-assess with any number of the PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQ), service providers often must perform either a Level 1 assessment, or self-assess via SAQ D. And because many healthcare providers do not operate in the traditional sense of a merchant, most will fall under the category of a service provider for PCI DSS compliance. While you may escape the wrath of having to perform a Level 1 assessment, compliance with SAQ D can be challenging, as it’s an extremely long and detailed document.

4. Begin with a Readiness Assessment: Do yourself a favor by beginning your PCI DSS initiatives with a comprehensive scoping and readiness assessment. PCI compliance for healthcare providers is not going away – more and more healthcare entities are storing, processing, and transmitting credit cards – so the importance of understanding one’s environment for PCI is critical.

5. Policies and Procedures are essential for Compliance: Are you aware of the importance of having PCI policies and procedures in place for PCI DSS compliance? Did you know that there are approximately fifty (50) different policies, procedures, forms, checklists and other supporting documents that need to be in place for PCI DSS compliance? It can be an incredibly time-consuming process, no doubt, and it’s why both merchants and service providers turn to the experts at pcipolicyportal.com for industry leading PCI policies and procedures for helping enable rapid compliance.

After all, who really wants to start from scratch and author information security policies and procedures? Even if you have policies and procedures currently in place, are they current, do they map to the existing PCI DSS standards, and have they even been reviewed for accuracy? Such initiatives could take dozens of hours to implement – and time is money, as the old saying goes – so do yourself a favor and instantly download any one of our award-winning PCI DSS toolkits today from pcipolicyportal.com.

6. Implement Key Operational Mandates: From assessing risk to mandating security awareness training, there’s much to be done in the world of PCI compliance that goes above and beyond just basic PCI policies. While PCI policies and procedures are without question critical, so are the numerous operational initiatives. Policies mean little to nothing if there are no actual procedures put in place for the likes of security awareness training, assessing risks annually, handling security incidents, having users acknowledge usage rights, and more. Take action today by implementing these critical requirements for PCI DSS compliance.

7. Protecting Cardholder Data and PHI is Essential: PCI compliance for healthcare providers essentially means protecting both cardholder data and Protected Health Information (PHI), which means you’ve now got a two-front battle to fight. Challenging indeed, but it’s got to done, so consider downloading our HIPAA policies and procedures today from hipaapoliciesandprocedures.com. Both Covered Entities (CE) and Business Associates (BA) can benefit from having high-quality, industry leading HIPAA information security policies and procedures in place. Much like PCI DSS, HIPAA also mandates that CE’s and BA’s have well-written, comprehensive InfoSec documentation in place.

8. Say Hello to “Continuous Monitoring”: What’s “Continuous Monitoring”, it’s the efforts put in place by businesses for continuing to monitor, assess, and enhance – as necessary – one’s internal controls as it relates to policies, procedures, and processes. It’s about ensuring the continued safety and security of organizational assets, from customer data (i.e., PHI, cardholder data, etc.) to confidential information (i.e., employee H.R. file, trade secrets, etc.). PCI compliance for healthcare providers will no doubt have to include provisions for “Continuous Monitoring”, so keep this in mind. Visit pcipolicyportal.com today to learn more about the industry leading PCI policies and procedures that are available for instant download for healthcare providers.

9. Conduct Scanning and Penetration Testing: PCI compliance for healthcare providers also means that vulnerability scanning and penetration testing will often be a strict requirement. While many companies loathe at the costs and operational time in setting up and establishing such services, its highly needed, even if PCI were not required. How so? Simple. Vulnerability scanning, both internal and external, is an excellent tool/service for identifying threats and other problems with your network. Penetration testing is also an excellent tool/service as such testing actually tries to exploit and “penetrate” your network to see if your network can be compromised and possibly even brought down. With increased cybersecurity risks and threats in today’s business landscape, scanning and penetration testing are two important initiatives all businesses must be performing.

The World’s Leading Provider of PCI Compliance for Healthcare Providers

From small physician’s offices to large national insurance companies, if you’re in the healthcare space and need PCI DSS assistance, then you’ve found the right company. Since 2009, Materdei Consulting, LLC has assisted thousands of businesses throughout North America in becoming compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Visit pcipolicyportal.com to learn more today about our products and solutions for healthcare providers.

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