CareSource Protects Private Healthcare Information With Absolute Secure Endpoint
CareSource is a non-profit, Medicaid-managed care company based in Dayton, Ohio. Established in 1989, CareSource has grown to the largest Medicaid-managed care plan in Ohio and the second largest in the U.S. 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 daily and at device retirement.
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 the best practices in protecting PHI and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
How They Did It
Real-Time Visibility and Control Across All Endpoints
CareSource looked at several solutions, but Absolute Secure Endpoint offered capabilities that met their needs perfectly. Absolute Persistence® technology is already embedded in over 600 million devices as a result of Absolute’s partnership with nearly 30 system manufacturers from around the world. Once activated, this technology is fiercely resilient and is the only solution to survive attempts to disable it, even if the device is re-imaged, the hard drive is replaced, or the firmware is updated. No other technology can do this. Ultimately, it provides CareSource with a secure, always-on connection between the Absolute Platform and their endpoints, allowing them to gain unprecedented real-time visibility, control, and remediation capabilities.
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 deletion has been performed on a device when it is retired. Absolute Secure Endpoint makes this possible. “With our hard drive encryption layer, we feel the data on our laptops is safe,” says Preece. “We have high standards for data security—and our forensics department was very satisfied with the data delete that Absolute Secure Endpoint can perform.”
For CareSource, Absolute Secure Endpoint:
- Provides quick and easy tracking of laptops and desktops
- Ensures sensitive PHI stored on computers is protected
- Allows CareSource to satisfy compliance requirements with remote security commands and end-of-life data deletion certificates to satisfy compliance requirements