In the healthcare industry, data keeps the lights on. Protecting that data without slowing down an already bureaucratic healthcare system isn’t easy, but it’s necessary for the work we do at ProviderTrust.
Many leading healthcare organizations, including ProviderTrust, are turning to HITRUST as the gold standard of information security and risk management guidance. HITRUST certification is notoriously difficult to achieve, yet more and more prominent payers and provider organizations are calling for their vendor partners to become HITRUST-certified.
ProviderTrust recently achieved HITRUST r2 certification after a years-long process of strengthening, expanding, and testing organization-wide cybersecurity practices to meet HITRUST’s most rigorous standards. We devoted countless hours and resources to achieving this certification, and we’d like to tell you why.
1. Go Above and Beyond Regulatory Requirements
First and foremost, our HITRUST certification demonstrates ProviderTrust’s commitment to raising the bar within the healthcare industry. We can (and should) do better than simply meeting the regulatory requirements.
The HITRUST framework compiles guidance from 51 authoritative sources—including HIPAA, NIST, SOC, ISO, and dozens more—into a comprehensive set of guidelines encompassing the industry’s leading security practices. HITRUST incorporates over 2,000 available controls into a certifiable program that’s always evolving to stay ahead of the curve.
The HITRUST certification process is especially rigorous because each assessment undergoes nearly 150 automated quality checks to identify and address any errors or omissions. On top of that, each assessment includes up to 5 levels of independent and objective quality review by assurance analysts within HITRUST’s assurance team before an organization can achieve certification. This comprehensive, thorough approach makes a HITRUST certification that much more impactful.
2. Build and Reinforce a Dynamic Security Framework
ProviderTrust has always prioritized information security, but HITRUST certification has taken our practices to the highest level. Throughout the HITRUST certification process, we carefully redefined a highly intentional security framework with the help of our expert partners.
HITRUST takes a risk-based approach to r2 certification, working with each organization to tailor a security framework that matches their level of risk and compliance factors with the right controls for their needs.
The security framework we built alongside HITRUST encompasses 19 domains, including data protection and privacy, endpoint protection, vulnerability management, access control, and more. Each domain has its own set of specific controls that outline the detailed processes involved, for a total of 320 controls that all passed the rigorous HITRUST assessment process.
3. Focus on What Makes an Impact
The framework we’ve outlined may sound like a large volume of processes, and it is. But rather than creating red tape, the goal of HITRUST certification is to set up the right processes for continued success. Over the course of the HITRUST r2 certification process, we built a robust, comprehensive security framework that can withstand risk without sacrificing the ability to move quickly and effectively.
HITRUST offers a close level of partnership that continues after the certification process, which means that certified organizations like ProviderTrust have access to the latest risk management guidance directly from HITRUST. This ensures that we can maintain focus on what really matters—delivering fast, accurate results to our clients—with the knowledge that we’re fully protecting the sensitive data involved in the process.
4. More Peace of Mind for Our Clients and Us
Security breaches have become more and more present in healthcare, with the rate of breaches nearly doubling between 2018 and 2020. Today, there are roughly two large security breaches reported per day in the healthcare industry, according to The HIPAA Journal.
HITRUST-certified organizations have to remain diligent and up-to-date with their frameworks, but the rate of security breaches is much lower. HITRUST reports that 99.4% of HITRUST-certified environments reported no security breaches in 2022 and 2023, reinforcing the effectiveness of their framework and ability to stay ahead of ever-evolving security trends.
Having a strong, HITRUST-approved cybersecurity foundation allows ProviderTrust to move quickly within the parameters we’ve intentionally established, so we can scale up with our clients while maintaining the highest level of data security.
5. Uphold Our Commitment to Doing Good
We aim to be the best in business, and our HITRUST certification demonstrates our commitment to upholding a higher standard in everything we do. The HITRUST r2 certification is considered the most reliable framework because its controls are based on transparency, accuracy, consistency, and integrity.
This pairs perfectly with ProviderTrust’s core values as an organization, particularly our dedication to telling the truth and doing what is good. That’s our promise to our clients and our team members, and it’s a value we’re proud to uphold in every area of our business.
Achieving HITRUST certification isn’t a one-time process—it’s a total shift in day-to-day procedures and organization-wide mindset. We’re especially proud of this accomplishment because of the total commitment required from every ProviderTrust team member to achieve certification, and we look forward to seeing how this achievement can help us make even more of an impact on patient safety moving forward.
