Stop Dreading HIPAA; Start Owning It
Why compliance is the biggest competitive advantage in healthcare data consulting
In the Age of AI, HIPAA is often seen as a blocker for innovation. If there’s one thing keeping me up at night as a data consultant, it’s the fast changing landscape of HIPAA compliance laws in the United States. Especially relevant for healthcare data consultants, working with PHI data can be overwhelming.
The stakes of a data breach are incredibly high, and HIPAA laws aren’t something you can overlook due to speed of delivery.
Ensuring your setup is indeed compliant, and the infrastructure you’re implementing at your clients comes with audit logging, AES-256 encryption, etc. is a steep learning curve. Luckily, cloud solutions such as Microsoft Fabric cover much of the HIPAA compliance a Business Associate is responsible for. For items such as audit logging, there are a few solutions you can buy or build fairly easily.
From Dreading It to Embracing It
When I first began building data systems in healthcare, I dreaded the added work to remain HIPAA compliant. Coming from various other industries like fast food, it wasn’t nearly as complex. The deeper I’ve gotten into healthcare, the more I’m embracing compliance as an advantage.
The knowledge gaps amongst healthcare companies and practitioners is real, and I feel it daily working in the space. I’m not saying I have it all figured out. We’re a boutique consultancy that is learning daily, but taking HIPAA compliance seriously. Holding a compliance-first mindset already separates you from the pack. First internalize the foundational HIPAA compliance frameworks, then ask the technical questions about security.
What South Africa Taught Me About Compliance
One of the most productive actions we’ve taken in the last month is travel to South Africa. You might be thinking — what the heck does South Africa have to do with United States HIPAA data compliance laws?
It just so happens that the firm I visited in South Africa is on the cutting edge of healthcare data compliance. They follow POPIA (South Africa’s equivalent of HIPAA for personal data protection), and they’re leveraging AI to build compliant data solutions in ways that genuinely impressed me. It served as an inspiring reminder that these capabilities are at the tips of our fingers in the Age of AI. Compliance innovation is a global movement, not just a US problem.
The Opportunity Is Massive
The market for building compliant data solutions is massive. High demand, low supply. There are very few subject matter experts when it comes to compliance globally. We need to embrace healthcare data compliance as a massive opportunity, not a constraint towards innovation. The innovation comes from differentiated compliance knowledge and implementation of infrastructure.
That’s our industry. If you’re working in healthcare and are annoyed by the guardrails (used to be me), then maybe you need to rethink your purpose here. As healthcare data consultants, it’s time to own compliance innovation!
Christian Steinert is the founder of Steinert Analytics, helping healthcare organizations turn data into actionable insights. Subscribe to Rooftop Insights for weekly perspectives on analytics and business intelligence in these industries.
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