How To Build A HIPAA-Compliant Healthcare App

Healthcare app development is the process of developing applications for mobile devices with the intention of facilitating users/patients to manage their medical conditions or fitness goals. This is inclusive of maintaining or organizing insurance claims, telemedicine, laboratory result reviews, fitness benchmarks, appointments or prescriptions, and much more. As technology is advancing, the requirement to have healthcare IT solutions or mHealth applications is exponentially increasing.

In this article, we will have a look at the same subject and understand how to develop a HIPAA-compliant healthcare application.

Understanding What The HIPAA Healthcare System Is

The term HIPAA stands for the ‘Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’ that was introduced in the year 1966. Initially, it was only regulated for the USA but due to the emerging healthcare consciousness, its equivalents have been adopted across many geographical regions. Furthermore, the advancement and excellence of a mobile application development company have offered potential healthcare solutions to businesses. A HIPAA-compliant healthcare solution is inclusive of medical or paramedical staff and professionals to create, modify, or access user or patient information under the provision of this regulation.

Vital Facts That You Should Know For Developing A HIPAA-Compliant Healthcare Application

Building a HIPAA-compliant healthcare application can at certain times impose various challenges for healthcare app developers. This is especially in terms of integrating various features or modifications in the application or on the design front as well. For making one such solution it is extremely important to recall the primary objective of a HIPAA-compliant healthcare app. These parameters are-

● Privacy

● Security

● Enforcement

● Breach or loopholes

As an application entrepreneur or mobile app development company you have to closely look at all these parameters to work around an ideal application. It is equally important to pay attention to the physical and technical safeguarding of the healthcare application.

Physical Safeguarding Parameters- These include the security of networks for transferring patient information, backend interface, and devices which might be Android or iOS. It is equally important to ensure that any segment of the healthcare application cannot be compromised, stolen, or misused.

Technical Safeguarding Parameters- The technical parameters entirely focus on finishing the data encryption through which the data can be transferred across the servers or devices. This includes an emergency information access process, automatic logout, and user identification.

The Ultimate Guide To HIPAA-Compliant Healthcare App Development

Just like the mobile applications across different industries and sectors, no two HIPAA-compliant healthcare applications are ever similar. Thus there are multiple features and processes that you can cover in your mHealth application. Go through the aspects that have been listed below and hire dedicated developers who can help you to achieve the unique application solutions for your platform:

1. Defining A Powerful Digital Strategy

At any stage of product development, you have to clarify the type of healthcare solution and its specific goals to the mobile app development company. This is because you must have the consideration for customers or users who will frequently use your application to perform one or multiple tasks.

2. Develop Outcome-Focused Healthcare IT Solutions

Mobile healthcare solutions are specially designed for the healthcare professionals whose primary objective is to save time and resources along with enhancing the accuracy of their treatment. The healthcare application of your platform must offer relevant and collect information to patients irrespective of their diversity. You have to ensure the same to influence your potential users in the industry.

3. Make Sure To Abide By The Regulatory Healthcare Standards

The healthcare industry has the most regulated claim at present and if your application is held for running any foul conduct then there are higher risks for its elimination or removal. As per the HIPAA compliance guidelines, healthcare mobile apps solutions must definitely follow the security and privacy rules.

4. Validate Your Application Idea With Patients As Well As Doctors

As soon as you hire dedicated developers and get a healthcare app developed you can run it past patients or doctors as they are the ultimate users who will go through its features and usability. The more market you can search for your conduct the faster your healthcare solution will proceed towards its launch. A business usually fails because they cannot spend plenty of time and resources in order to make their healthcare product fit for the market.

5. Develop Applications That Can Be Easily Integrated Within The Healthcare Environment

One of the most crucial aspects of working with healthcare app developers or app development companies in San Francisco is to have the ability to connect healthcare applications with EHRs or EMRs. These are respectively Electronic Health Records or Electronic Medical Records that represent the digital version of a patient's health status and clinical references. These digital clinical documents are specially developed to reach beyond the medical professional team or organization that originally developed and compiled its information.

How Much Does It Cost To Develop A HIPAA-Compliant Healthcare Application?

The cost of developing this sort of mobile application depends upon the size and the complexity of the app itself. It also varies accordingly if you are hiring a local agency, freelancers, or outsourcing the app solution.

● A local company will cost you around $100 to $300 per hour

● Freelance development will cost you an average of around $13000

● Outsourcing the application will cost you an average of $19000 every month

The Bottom Line

Apparently, the world is driven by the influence of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic situation and the global healthcare industry is well aware of it. Soon the countries and the digital world will be entering the face of healthcare transformation and it will become the new norm. In the process of digital transformation, healthcare platforms will understand the compliance and the nuances of integrating medical software for their services and will succeed in their venture. As developing one such solution is far beyond just usual Healthcare app development, creating HIPAA-compliant Healthcare applications will help you to achieve enormous success.