CareSource
CareSource PHI is Protected by Absolute
CareSource is a non-profit, Medicaid-managed care company based in Dayton, Ohio. Since 1989, CareSource has grown to the largest Medicaid-managed care plan in Ohio and the second largest in the US. The team at CareSource is committed to making a difference in the lives of Medicaid-qualified, underserved people by improving their access to and quality of healthcare. This mission is their “heartbeat” and dedication is the hallmark of their success.
With 1,400 staff working to meet the healthcare needs of more than 900,000 members, reliable, secure technology and access to health and policy information are essential for CareSource. CareSource also needs to safeguard this information day to day and at device retirement.
Challenges
In 2009, the mix of laptops to desktops at CareSource was 30:70, with approximately 300 laptops in a growing inventory. The CareSource IT team knew they needed to track all their machines—especially the more portable laptops—because they contained protected health information (PHI). The CareSource IT team also wanted to work toward best practices in protecting PHI and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Solution
CareSource looked at several solutions but Absolute offered features that met their needs perfectly. “It was our responsibility to choose a solution that could help us protect the PHI on our laptops,” says Jarad Preece, IT Manager at CareSource.
Commenting on the deployment of the Absolute platform, Preece recalls: “The deployment was easy, it took just a couple of weeks.”
Persistence technology by Absolute is embedded into device firmware at the factory. If the Absolute agent is removed—for instance, as the result of installing a new operating system—it simply reinstalls itself. This level of Persistence allows CareSource to maintain contact with each device, regardless of user or location.
Because of the healthcare policy laws, including HIPAA, that CareSource must adhere to, the IT team has to provide an end of life certificate to show that a complete data delete has been performed on a device when it is retired. Absolute makes this possible.
Results
The biggest benefit of the Absolute platform is the knowledge that we can wipe data or recover stolen laptops. We rest easy knowing confidential protected health information will not be compromised.
Resources
Absolute Persistence Technology
Learn more about Persistence — the only technology that keeps you in complete command with a self-healing, two-way connection to any endpoint or application — even if they are off the network. It’s a fundamentally new approach to security, leveraging our privileged position embedded in the firmware of billions of endpoints.
Achieving HIPAA Compliance
Your guide to avoiding HIPAA and HITECH penalties. In 2013, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act amended the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, forcing business associates and contractors to comply with the same privacy and security regulations as covered entities. Now, a covered entity (CE) must ensure their business associates and contractors agree to comply with written agreements.
