While HIPAA does not explicitly require email archiving, it is a valuable practice for healthcare organizations to consider. Email archiving helps organizations meet electronic data retention requirements, enhances business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities, simplifies audit responses, and strengthens overall data security.
Email archiving is the process of storing email communications in a searchable format. It involves converting emails, including attachments and metadata, into data that can be accessed when needed. While email archiving is not explicitly mandated by HIPAA, it is a valuable method for maintaining records of email communications.
According to Jim McGann, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Index Engines, "Today, securing data and ensuring data privacy requires more than creating copies; it demands active validation of the integrity of that data."
Unlike traditional backup solutions, email archiving allows businesses to search for specific emails quickly. This feature is especially useful when searching for particular email threads or information. Additionally, email archiving ensures the integrity of email data, preventing unauthorized access, alteration, or deletion, which aligns with the requirements of the HIPAA security rule.
HIPAA email archiving compliance requirements only apply to covered entities and business associates that archive emails containing PHI. If an organization does not archive emails containing PHI, HIPAA does not apply to those emails. Consider other state or federal regulations that may apply depending on the content of the emails.
Read also: What is email archiving and retention?
For covered entities and business associates who archive emails on-premises, the HIPAA email archiving requirements are the same as for any other PHI stored on-site. These requirements include implementing administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic PHI.
In addition to the general HIPAA security rule requirements, organizations that archive emails on-premises must comply with the documentation retention standard. This standard requires covered organizations to retain HIPAA documentation, such as policies, risk assessments, access reports, and audit logs, for at least six years after the documents were last in use.
One of the challenges organizations may face with on-premises email archiving is storage capacity. Depending on the size of the organization and the frequency of policy refreshes and risk analyses, there could be a significant amount of documentation to retain. This can lead to increased storage costs and potential operational challenges.
Read more: What is a HIPAA retention policy?
Many covered entities and business associates are turning to cloud-based solutions to address the storage challenges of on-premises email archiving. Cloud-based email archiving services offered by existing email service providers can provide a cost-effective option for archiving emails. These services reduce on-premises storage space and provide built-in safeguards to comply with the HIPAA security rule.
While cloud-based email archiving can be a cost-effective solution, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the capabilities of the service provider. Some email service providers may lack certain features required for HIPAA email archiving compliance, such as automatic rules-based retention policies and records management capabilities.
In addition to existing email service providers, organizations may also consider third-party service providers for HIPAA compliant email archiving. When choosing a third-party provider, make sure that the vendor is willing to enter into a business associate agreement (BAA). A BAA is a legal contract that establishes the responsibilities and liabilities of both the covered entity and the business associate in safeguarding PHI.
According to Jatheon, “Enterprise data archiving technology is often referred to as ‘insurance for data’ – most of the time it looks like an unnecessary expense. That is unless something happens. These solutions typically pay themselves off after a single audit or legal case where the company is proven compliant or innocent. To be precise, the adoption of information archiving technology has been proven to reduce legal risk by 62%.”
While implementing a third-party email archiving solution may require additional effort in terms of due diligence and vendor evaluation, the benefits can justify the extra effort. Third-party solutions can even help reduce the risk of insider theft and record tampering, improve the efficiency of mail servers, and reduce the need for IT helpdesk support to recover lost or deleted emails.
Paubox Email Suite provides archiving capabilities that allow healthcare organizations to retain emails for compliance purposes. This feature makes sure that organizations can meet the necessary retention requirements and have easy access to past email communications when needed.
Furthermore, Paubox Email Suite offers standard reporting functionality, allowing organizations to monitor and analyze email activity. With this feature, healthcare organizations can gain insights into email usage, detect any anomalies or potential security breaches, and maintain compliance with email policies.
See also: HIPAA Compliant Email: The Definitive Guide
Email archiving is needed to free up space on mail servers and other storage units. Many organizations, including HIPAA-covered entities and business associates, are subject to document retention requirements that can consume significant storage capacity.
Healthcare email archiving for e-discovery involves archiving emails in a searchable format to enable healthcare organizations to respond to e-discovery requests for electronically stored information within the permitted 30 days. This requires indexing and archiving emails when they first enter the mail server to maintain the integrity of the content.
Email archiving software for HIPAA-covered entities is an application that takes copies of inbound and outbound emails as they enter the mail server, indexes them, and stores them in a read-only format in a non-production environment. The software also deduplicates email content, applies automated rules-based retention policies, and facilitates the automatic deletion of emails at the end of the required retention period.
HIPAA email archiving service providers must sign business associate agreements because they have "persistent access" to emails containing PHI, making them qualified as business associates according to HHS guidance.
An email archive is a long-term, low-cost storage solution that indexes and stores emails in a searchable format for easy retrieval. In contrast, an email backup is a short to medium-term data store created for disaster recovery purposes, allowing organizations to restore mailboxes in the event of data loss.
Read also: Top HIPAA compliant email services