In healthcare, security isn’t optional — one breach can destroy trust, trigger lawsuits, and halt operations.
Using SSO for healthcare helps deal with compliance effortlessly.
But still, challenges with compliance and staffing are an uphill battle. Luckily, we’re here to help with that. Want to improve security, efficiency, and compliance in one go?
Well, you’ve come to the right place…
What Is SSO for Healthcare?
Single-sign-on in healthcare helps medical institutions meet compliance requirements quickly by granting access to only authorized personnel and logging their access times with an auditable record.
Single sign-on is a feature that grants users access to multiple applications, databases, and even areas in one go.
The modern-day doctor does not carry around a lot of devices and relies mainly on apps and software - this makes SSO for healthcare a no-brainer solution to deal with the world of authentication for medical and pharma industries.
Why Should Healthcare Organizations Implement SSO?
In the world of pharmaceuticals, healthcare, healthcare technology, and aged care - compliance guidelines like HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, and CCPA are mandatory.
In fact, in the year 2017 the company CardioNet needed to pay 2.5 Million USD in a settlement due to non-compliance with HIPAA.
And this is not the only case, more recently Gulf Coast Pain Consultants had to pay nearly 1.7 million USD due to non-compliance and HIPAA violations from a phishing email that exposed client accounts.
But what are the main reasons healthcare companies need to use SSO? To name a few…
- Regulatory Compliance: Meeting FDA regulations alongside the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are typically the major guidelines healthcare organizations need to follow. Failing this, you can meet with lawsuits and hefty fines from government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services as well as patients.
- Easier Password Management: If you’re working with a huge team - which is usually the case with most healthcare organizations password management becomes a lot more difficult. With an advanced SSO healthcare framework, you can get managed password access - which means you can grant access to users based on department or roles without revealing the password itself.
- Audit Trials: With healthcare companies, data and access to patient and client data need to be auditable at any moment by hospital admins and CSOs to make sure there is no fraudulent billing or unneeded modification (with info about when it happened and who changed). This kind of information is a must-have to be on good terms with governing bodies like the HHS, OCR, CMS, and DPA.
- Better Security Through MFA: The fact is most non-compliance fines, data breaches and ransomware attacks are the result of brute force attacks and phishing emails. With an SSO healthcare software that supports MFA your healthcare company is protected from the most compromising external and internal attacks.
- Quicker Passwordless Access: To keep your workflow quick and avoid bottlenecks, SSO in healthcare allows quick access without the need for passwords. Some alternative methods used could be biometrics (facial recognition, fingerprint sensors, passcodes, OTPs, or even a passcard (or device passkey).
Challenges in Implementing SSO in Healthcare and How to Overcome Them
Non-SSO-Compatible Ecosystems
Some healthcare providers use a lot of technology like EHR systems that may not be supported by SAML, OAuth, or OpenID Connect protocols as they are older applications or never needed to support these as they are typically proprietary.
This can present a challenge when putting a single sign-on framework in place. However, to deal with this using MPWA or an encrypted password enablement system is what some SSOs for healthcare providers do.
Usage of On Premises Applications and Analog Technology
A lot of EHR systems, imaging software, pharmacy management tech, and Lab information systems are proprietary. This means that vendors keep them from being readily integrated to maintain security.
To deal with this, the usage of hybrid SSO apps in healthcare that use managed password access or encrypted password vaults can help with this. Alternatively, in the case of on-premises software and cloud software with older protocols to be accessed a gateway like NAG that’s present locally in your system enables cloud-based SSO authentication.
Complexity in Switching Existing Systems
A lot of the time, existing and older systems are tried and tested. So why switch?
Well, aside from a lack of agility, they do not provide complete visibility of your full security in one place. So, while you may have multiple directories or databases, SSO software for healthcare companies usually has directory sync that removes this issue altogether.
Lack of Technical Oversight in Implementation
Digitisation, although not new, has seen constant innovation - and hospitals usually use tech that is a decade older. What this means is that CSOs and security admins could find these new frameworks intimidating.
Luckily, oversight is not an absolute requirement with SSO platforms for healthcare. SSO providers in healthcare companies or hospitals usually work with directory sync and safeguard access based on the roles you permit. This means it just imports information from your existing EHR systems and puts it in a dashboard that is straightforward to use.
Compliance and Security Vulnerabilities When Switching
Most healthcare regulations require that hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare companies keep a record of their patients, personnel, and transactions for at least 5-10 years.
Aside from this, there are aspects like continuous logging of access to PHI and violations of business associate agreements under HIPAA or GDPR that complicate things.
Luckily, a lot of SSO software can work around these with detailed logs, data encryption, and role-based access with access to only limited personnel.
Additional Expenditure
Just like shifting states or homes, modifying your system can seem expensive. But like most things, looking at your ROI in terms of functionality, workflow as well as scalability in the long term can put things into perspective.
Contrary to popular belief, adding an SSO healthcare framework to your healthcare company is not outrageously expensive. This goes especially once you consider the overbearing cost of technical debt - which believe it or not costs the US nearly $2.41 trillion annually (with at least 15% of an average company’s IT budget to just mitigate it).
Best Practices for Deploying SSO in Healthcare
The reality is that deploying SSO for healthcare and choosing an SSO relevant to your company and goals is what makes sure you get a worthwhile ROI from investing in a healthcare SSO provider.
- Principle of Least Privilege and Role-Based Access Control: When you limit access to files based on department, role, and position you prevent most data leaks. In fact, the NIH in 2020 disclosed that over 29.47% of data breaches in healthcare happen due to internal unauthorized disclosure.
- Smooth Flow and Compatibility With EHRs and Legacy Systems: Since many healthcare systems are proprietary and siloed, we recommend making sure that your healthcare SSO provider can support and replace your existing system without any hitches.
- Automate Your User Lifecycle Management: By setting access policies in place, you can reduce admin time and costs by automating your employee’s journey. This way you have less hassle regardless of employee turnover and avoid human error or oversight in granting access.
- Make Sure There is MFA and Passwordless Authentication: User experience that balances security is essential. Using a healthcare SSO provider that allows you to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) in your organization puts this in place a lot easily. Look for a SSO for healthcare that supports biometrics, passkeys, passcodes, and access cards to help your system be secure and easy to use.
- Choose an SSO With Zero-Trust Framework: 29.72% of data breaches in healthcare occur due to hacking or IT incidents. Your healthcare SSO provider should have a zero-trust framework to protect your system based on risk, time intervals, the device used, and end-to-end encryption that protects data in transit.
- Verify that Your SSO Provider Can Handle Large Volumes: If you are in healthcare, odds are you’ll be working with a large volume of personnel like technicians, nurses, admins, doctors, or medical experts with different specific functions. To prevent this from coming to a stop, make sure your healthcare SSO provider has no reports of downtime and that you explore existing use cases to be certain that they can meet a company of your size and its requirements.
How Infisign’s SSO Transforms Healthcare Access Management
- Lower Admin Costs: With automated user lifecycle management, attribute, and group-based provisioning you reduce admin costs for your healthcare company significantly. Infisign helps create healthcare access management systems that are both easily scalable and cost less.
- Compatibility With On Premises and Legacy Systems: Infisign comes with a network access gateway and MPWA that make it a lot more versatile for legacy applications and on premises tools not normally accessible on cloud that do not support SSO for healthcare. What this does is allow you to have visibility on who accesses tools and allows your personnel to log in to all your applications in one go (without giving them visibility on credentials).
- Puts Quick MFA in Place: MFA believe it or not solves almost all cybersecurity and unauthorized access issues. However, by using SSO for healthcare alongside adaptive MFA, Infisign creates a security that is quick for users and not a roadblock.
- No Breaches Due ZTF: Zero trust frameworks, remove gaps in security by limiting periods of access and by constantly requiring the users to authenticate themselves. Aside from this, it puts systems that check IP addresses, user behavior, and devices for suspicious behavior requiring additional security or authentication if needed.
- ABAC, RBAC, and PAM: With Attribute-based access, you can add employee number, or DOJ (whatever you include that your users or admins need to update). This alongside Role-based access and privileged access creates a system that makes compliance and security a whole lot easier.
- Add and Remove Access in a few clicks: Add and remove entire groups and users to whatever platform or software in a matter of seconds.
- Temporary Access: Is your chief surgeon or head of department out sick? Assign temporary access or Impersonation to users for set intervals to avoid any issues with workflow and keep an auditable record of the same.
- Flexibility for Different Multiple Ecosystems: Works for On-Premises, Hybrid, and Cloud environments and can import users from multiple directories to monitor and grant access all from one place.
SSO in Healthcare: Key Takeaway
Just like in SaaS, adding SSO healthcare to your existing security framework in your hospital, clinic, or medical institution can add agility while keeping security in place.
But just like any framework in healthcare, SSO for healthcare requires building your system it in compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, and HITECH regulations to prevent expensive lawsuits and regulatory fines.
Want to add Infisign to your EHR or healthcare system? Reach out for a free demo!
FAQs for SSO in Healthcare
What is SSO in healthcare?
Healthcare SSO or single sign-on helps grant technicians and doctors access to relevant applications for tracking patient data, and tests, as well as, (in some cases) recording who has access to sensitive patient-related information with a single log-in attempt. From an admin standpoint, SSO in healthcare helps keep track of who has access to sensitive information like payment details, insurance, and even their address.
Is SSO required for HIPAA?
No, But putting healthcare sso in place can help make HIPAA compliance a lot quicker and easier for your staff and anyone working with your patient data or treatment. This also helps by putting audit trails in place by adding another software that can manage user access and logs.
What is an example of an SSO?
One example of an SSO anyone would get immediately is Google’s app suite where you can log in to Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, and the multitude of Google’s applications without having to keep logging in each time.
What is the difference between an identity provider and an SSO?
The difference between an identity provider and an SSO typically boils down to function an identity provider regulates access and keeps track of employees in different departments. In an SSO or Single sign-on, the function is centered on authenticating users to multiple applications they need to complete their tasks in one go.
