Whether your business is a growing legal office, in the financial sector or a regional healthcare facility, a vast majority of businesses have compliance requirements for securing confidential information of their clients or patients.
In addition to storing information at the business site, this issue is complicated by today’s environment of confidential information also being stored on individual laptops and other portable devices.
In 2006, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards council was developed to the focus on improving security for processing, storing and transmitting credit card information. These standards apply to anyone who has a Merchant ID and are enforced by the card brands (VISA, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and JCB). As you may know, to use these services involves a transaction fee but these services also provide security for the information you process. It is important for you as a business owner to know your compliance level which is determined mainly by your business activity. Failure to adhere to merchant compliance can result in fines from $5,000 to $100,000 per month.
For small businesses providing healthcare to patients, the issue of compliance becomes even more complicated. In addition to payment processing compliance, these entities must also provide security for confidential patient health information. The healthcare provide is not just worried about getting “hacked” but they often have to share patient information with vendors which may be another doctor, lab facility, billing service etc. These vendors or other service providers who have access to the office or share information for support services are also subject to compliance guidelines. These firms must sign compliance agreements to ensure that any information shared is secure. Even a cleaning company is bound to guarantee the privacy of information they may see or have access to while performing the tasks of their service.
66% of healthcare provider respondents in 2012 said
iPads and other tablets were being used
as computing devices for medial purposes,
up from only 45% in 2011.
We know that your bottom line is important and that it can be tough to swallow the fees that are associated with merchant transactions. Perhaps we can help with that. The beauty of working with our staff at Future Link is that we have experience with clients in many different industries who have many different compliance needs. Put our expertise to use. Let us talk with you and build a compliance plan that is reasonable for the size of your business but still minimizes your security risk and keeps your company compliant.