P2PE in the Health Care Industry

In 2014, healthcare had the second largest number of security breaches.  As the healthcare industry continues to evolve and become more dependent upon patient payments, the complexity involved with protecting patient data grows.  Healthcare organizations, large and small, hold a great deal of responsibility in protecting their patient’s personal data, including payment information.  While hospitals and other healthcare entities would like to move toward more patient-friendly payment options, the ability to do so is hindered by the potential risks for data breaches.

The need for highly secured data systems often leaves healthcare businesses struggling to find innovative payment processing technology that protects their organization, protects their patients, and meets PCI standards without breaking the bank.  However, Point to Point Encryption (P2PE) is the cyber-security solution that’s helping healthcare organizations accomplish this goal.

In the past, adopting the latest and most innovative payment processing solutions has created greater risk for data breaches within healthcare establishments.  P2PE is helping the healthcare industry progress by encrypting transaction data at these access points and keeping it encrypted until it reaches a secure decryption environment.  With this secure technology, hospitals and other healthcare businesses can better protect patients and their guarantors when integrating new payment processing software into their existing systems.

Because P2PE prevents cardholder data from being left in the clear, healthcare businesses that take advantage of this technology are afforded the opportunity to decrease the scope of their PCI responsibility.  Now, instead of a 335 question PCI self-assessment questionnaire, hospitals with complex networks can save time and efforts with just 35 questions.

Bluefin Payment Systems has already implemented their own PCI-Validated P2PE solution at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a large multi-facility hospital network.  Children’s is now enjoying a greatly improved cyber security status.  You can read this case study here.