HITRUST Certified Healthcare Services

What is HITRUST Certification and Why it Matters for Your Practice

The healthcare industry is the top target for cybercriminals. Not only is the number of data breaches increasing, but the number of records breached is also on the rise. In 2022, 51.9 million records were breached. In 2023, that number rose to 168 million, according to the HIPAA Journal.

What does this have to do with HITRUST certification?

Everything.

HITRUST stands for Health Information Trust Alliance. This standards organization developed the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF). This framework combines best-in-class security controls and risk management from HIPAA, NIST, ISO, and PCI, embedding them all into its comprehensive security and privacy program. It includes 1,800 security controls and offers HITRUST certification services.

Becoming HITRUST certified and requiring your third-party vendors to do the same translates to the highest standards in privacy and security practices for electronic protected health information (ePHI). According to the NCC Group, over 80% of hospitals and health plans have implemented the HITRUST CSF as the basis or resource for their security program, making it the most widely used framework in the healthcare industry.

notifyMD® Is the First Answering Service to be HITRUST Certified

Because of our commitment to the highest levels of security and safeguarding sensitive patient information, notifyMD® became the first telephone answering service to be HITRUST certified. Achieving the gold standard in health information privacy and security ensures stringent compliance to their extensive risk management practices.

To achieve this, we became r2 HITRUST certified. This two-year validated assessment represents the highest information protection and compliance assurance level and is the most comprehensive option in the organization’s HITRUST certification services. It ensures robust cybersecurity practices, tailored controls that cover the risk and compliance factors specific to an organization, and demonstrates that nofifyMD® meets the most demanding information risk assessments.

Medical practices and hospitals request third-party r2 assessments from providers involved with ePHI and other sensitive data, as well as those deemed high-risk. This practice ensures your business partners and providers understand the cybersecurity protection and compliance standards required in today’s environment.

Benefits of Partnering with a HITRUST Certified Provider

HITRUST’s 2025 Trust Report demonstrated the organization’s ability to reduce cyber risks. HITRUST-certified companies reported a 0.59% incident rate in 2024. That means about 99.4% did not experience a breach, an astounding record in light of the current cyberattack rates.

This report also acknowledges that the HITRUST cyber threat-adaptive framework guards healthcare providers against the latest threats. As the cyberattack landscape transforms, it’s essential to stay updated on the latest tactics used by cybercriminals.

Partnering with a medical answering service without HITRUST certification leaves you at greater risk of potential data breaches, the result of which can be devastating. From lost revenue to extensive fines and diminished patient trust, successful cyberattacks can lead to severe repercussions.

How We Maintain HITRUST Standards for Data Protection

Maintaining HITRUST healthcare standards ensures your patients’ sensitive data is secure and protected against breaches. To accomplish this, we perform the following security controls.

• Comprehensive Risk Management: We manage risks using HITRUST CSF’s best practices and security and privacy controls.
• Incident Response Plans: This plan provides a framework and steps to take should a data breach occur. These steps reduce the damage from cybersecurity attacks through containment and quick recovery.
• Network Protection: Protecting the network infrastructure includes application-level firewalls, IP reputation filtering, and intrusion detection systems.
• Encryption: Encryption safeguards patient data by transforming it into an unreadable format that only authorized individuals can access.
• Endpoint Protection: These systems secure individual devices and protect against viruses and malware. This protection includes patches, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and software updates.
• HIPAA Compliant: Because the HIPAA requirements for medical practices are embedded in HITRUST CSF, you can be confident you’re working with a HIPAA-compliant medical answering service.
• Extensive Training: notifyMD®’s virtual medical receptionists are trained in HITRUST healthcare data protection, ensuring the most rigorous data protection protocols.
• Secure Messaging: We ensure secure messaging through the use of encryption, password protection, role-based access control, and multi-factor authentication.
• notifyMD® App: Our HIPAA-compliant app provides a secure messaging platform.

By managing compliance, reducing risk, and upholding the strictest cybersecurity procedures as defined by HITRUST, you can be confident in our HIPAA-compliant security protocols.