There have been several healthcare data breaches that have made the mainstream news, and they have sounded a major alarm on the cybersecurity issues in the healthcare industry. Patients, insurers, and employees are most impacted by these breaches.

Just like physicians working with historical and established medical care, all telehealth, video, m-health, and e-health physicians or caregivers must uphold the same standard for safeguarding all of the records on patients’ care and on conversations securely and confidentially.

The federal government has acted to strengthen privacy and security protections for health information established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). That means physicians must understand the requirements for the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) with patients that have a direct treatment relationship with a patient.