EpicTide Delivers Healthcare’s First Policy Engine Used to Systematically Detect Privacy and Security Exceptions in Healthcare Information Systems

Identity Theft in Healthcare and Government HIPAA Activities Drive Leading Healthcare Providers to Systematically Audit Electronic Health Records to Ensure Patient Safety

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at the Gartner IT Security Summit, EpicTide, a leading provider of privacy auditing solutions for the healthcare industry announced the general availability of EpicTide FairWarning® Policy Engine. EpicTide FairWarning® is now bundled with dozens of use case scenarios that represent the greatest compliance, privacy and security risks to healthcare providers. EpicTide FairWarning® Policy Engine was developed in close collaboration with healthcare providers who are required to systematically audit massive volumes of transactions occurring in a diverse set of healthcare information systems.

“US care delivery organizations are responsible for putting system auditing controls in place. This is the low hanging fruit of HIPAA security rule safeguards”

“US care delivery organizations are responsible for putting system auditing controls in place. This is the low hanging fruit of HIPAA security rule safeguards,” said Barry Runyon, Gartner Research Director and healthcare analyst. “Without the proper technical controls like system auditing, personal healthcare information (PHI) can be put at risk.”

EpicTide FairWarning®’s policy engine is the first commercially available solution specifically designed to automatically and continuously review the audit logs from a diverse range of health information systems. EpicTide FairWarning® systematically detects and alerts on security, privacy and compliance exceptions through a non-invasive approach to audit log reviews.

“Currently, healthcare providers fulfill on their compliance and security obligations through tedious, inconsistent manual audit log review processes," said Kurt Long, CEO of EpicTide. “EpicTide FairWarning now enables customers to create their own policies through the point-and-click user interface. The same point-and-click interface provides privacy and security personnel with the ability to filter events, eliminating false positives that are specific to their environment.”

Privacy and security compliance amongst healthcare providers is receiving renewed attention since the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General conducted its first unannounced HIPAA audit. Specific provisions of HIPAA sections 164.306, 164.312, 164.308 as well as patient information safety considerations require care delivery organizations to review HIS audit logs for information security and privacy incidents.

“Establishing a solid foundation of privacy and security auditing in electronic health records is essential to the healthcare industry’s viability. I am delighted to see vendors like EpicTide contribute to a strategic industry direction that I am committed to,” said John Wade, chairman elect of HIMSS.

EpicTide’s FairWarning® is an affordable, appliance based solution that automates healthcare’s best practices for reviewing audit logs from systems which access protected health information. EpicTide FairWarning® provides out-of-the-box support for every major healthcare application including: Cerner Millennium, Cerner Power Chart, Eclipsys E7000, Epic Chronicles, Epic Clarity, GE Centricity Access, GE Centricity Patient, GE Centricity Staff, GE PACS, Keane, Kronos, Misys Laboratory, Misys Radiology, McKesson Caremanager, McKesson Series 2000, McKesson Horizon Expert Documentation, McKesson Meds Manager, McKesson Horizon Patient Folder, McKesson Horizon Surgical Manager, McKesson STAR 2000, McKesson STAR Audit, McKesson Pathways, MEDITECH MAGIC, MEDITECH Client / Server, MercuryMD, Siemens Invision, T-Systems, WellSoft Emergency DIS. Windows servers, Unix servers, VPNs, Single Sign On devices, firewalls, routers and email systems are also supported by EpicTide FairWarning®.

EpicTide FairWarning® has a point-and-click tool for defining additional audit sources.

About EpicTide, Inc.

EpicTide is a leader in solutions that help healthcare organizations increase their security responsiveness, identify insider security incidents, automate compliance and reduce associated costs. The company is privately held and is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. To learn more about EpicTide, Inc., visit the company website at www.epictide.com or call the company at 1-866-602-8433 (U.S. Toll Free) or [phone] (International).