Inventory Controls for HIPAA Compliance

Accurate inventory management is the cornerstone of HIPAA compliance. Unfortunately, modern enterprise environments, characterized by hybrid and remote work, cloud infrastructure and applications, and mobile technologies, have added layers of complexity to maintaining accurate inventory controls and good technology data hygiene.

Data Silos

Enterprises use 11+ tools/databases for audits and 40% have accuracy issues due to conflicting data from different tools.¹

Data Accuracy

46% of organizations experienced considerable increases in audit delays and costs due to inaccurate asset data.²

Data Consolidation

51% of IT professionals say that data synchronization across systems and applications is a significant challenge.¹

Ensure HIPAA Compliance through Rigorous Inventory Controls

Enterprise Technology Management (ETM) solutions provide an integrated platform to manage and monitor your complete PHI technology landscape. This proactive approach ensures compliance with HIPAA inventory controls as well as other industry standards/frameworks, while also improving your overall security posture.

Improve technology data hygiene and maintain accurate HIPAA inventory controls for hardware, software and cloud assets with Oomnitza. Ensure continuous compliance with regulatory mandates and automate audit preparation processes.

improvement in audit accuracy
and completeness

Using Oomnitza, we're able to provide real-time updates on what we have installed, which is a core part of our compliance and certification efforts.

Nemi George
VP, Information Security Officer & IT Operations
Pacific Dental Services

reduction in audit
preparation time

The Importance of Accurate Inventory Controls

For IT organizations operating within the healthcare sector, complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a critical responsibility. HIPAA is designed to protect patient health information and imposes stringent requirements on healthcare providers and business partners that have access to patient data.

Central to HIPAA compliance is the implementation of robust inventory control measures. This refers to the comprehensive management and documentation of all technology assets that store, process, or transmit protected/personal health information (PHI). This includes not only devices (end-user, field, network, mobile, IoT) but also servers, data storage, software applications and cloud services.

Covered entities must maintain an accurate and detailed inventory of technology assets to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI.

Unfortunately, modern healthcare environments, characterized by virtual care and telehealth services, hybrid and remote work, mobile and operational devices, and cloud services, have complicated the task of tracking all technology assets and maintaining accurate inventory data. 55% of organizations have less than 75% asset coverage with inconsistent context such as ownership, location, security and lifecycle state³.

Failure to maintain adequate inventory controls can lead to severe consequences, including security exposures and unauthorized PHI access, legal and financial penalties due to HIPAA violations, reputational damage, and operational disruptions.

Challenges

Keeping up with the fast pace of adoption of diverse user and healthcare devices, SaaS apps and cloud services
Tracking and managing assets across remote workforce and growing number of locations
Resource and cost overruns in obtaining and compiling PHI related inventory data
Friction between IT and GRC teams due to poor inventory management and inaccurate compliance reporting

The Challenges of Modern Enterprise Landscape

Traditional IT Asset Management (ITAM) and CMDB-based solutions usually fall short in addressing the evolving technology landscape. 54% of organizations find the implementation of CMDB tools complex, labor intensive and time consuming. And 75% of CMDB initiatives fail due to inadequate focus on data accuracy, process standardization, and staff skills.

Often, IT teams resort to manually pulling information from multiple sources, aggregating it painstakingly via spreadsheets, and contacting users to reconcile duplicate entries or populate gaps.

No wonder, almost 50% of enterprises face considerable audit delays, resource shortages and cost overruns to complete technology audits due to siloed inventories, poor data hygiene and inadequate process automation². This impedes adherence to security and compliance controls.

Streamline Inventory Controls and Technology Audits

To enhance the accuracy, efficiency and timeliness of compliance with HIPAA inventory controls you need to embrace improvements in tools, processes and automation.

ETM solutions address the needs of today’s dynamic technology environments, overcoming the limitations of traditional ITAM and CMDB solutions by providing:

Centralized inventory of all PHI technology assets by leveraging existing tools and installed agents for comprehensive coverage, ensuring no asset goes untracked.
Low-code/no-code workflows and pre-packaged workflow applications that are easily configured for your needs, to assess compliance, remediate issues and automate HIPAA audit preparation tasks.
Connector integrations with 160+ IT, security and business systems to discover, aggregate, normalize and enrich technology data for single-source audit data.
Powerful business intelligence, notifications and reporting to keep stakeholders informed and provide evidence for HIPAA auditors to demonstrate compliance.

Benefits

Single system for tracking all healthcare technology assets across hardware, software and cloud services
Confidence in HIPAA inventory controls and PHI compliance policies being met
Better audit accuracy, efficiency and timeliness with automated workflows to streamline audit preparation tasks
Cost savings by reducing manual effort, human error and the need for resource intensive IT projects
Reduced risk of HIPAA fines and failures
Improved alignment and collaboration between healthcare IT and GRC teams

ESG Research Report: 2022 Security Hygiene and Posture Management
Oomnitza Snapshot Survey: IT Compliance and Technology Audits
Cybersecurity Insiders 2021 Attack Surface Management report