HIPAA Security Rule technical safeguards require covered entities and business associates to implement access controls, audit controls, integrity controls, and transmission security for all electronic Protected Health Information — a framework that maps directly to Zero Trust principles of identity verification, least-privilege access, continuous monitoring, and encrypted data flows. With healthcare data breach costs averaging over $10 million per incident and OCR enforcement actions carrying multi-million dollar penalties, HIPAA compliance is the primary regulatory driver for Zero Trust adoption across hospitals, health systems, health plans, and their third-party vendors.
Related: Healthcare · HITECH · PHI · EHR · Hospitals