Strategy and Solutions
A telemedicine provider delivering virtual consults, e-prescriptions, and patient portals engaged Zymr to harden application and cloud security while achieving HIPAA compliance ahead of multi-state expansion. The platform handled PHI across web, mobile, and clinician consoles, with integrations to e-prescribing networks and insurance eligibility services.
Leadership’s objective: identify and remediate application and cloud risks, validate encryption and access safeguards, formalize HIPAA-aligned policies, and build evidence for audit—without slowing clinical operations or release cadence.
Put simply, the provider needed provable HIPAA controls, secure apps and APIs, and a manageable path to sustain compliance as services grew.
The assessment surfaced security and compliance gaps typical of fast-scaling healthcare software.
Feature velocity outpaced structured testing. We suspected weaknesses in session termination, JWT claim validation, and API authorization scopes—especially around clinician impersonation and attachment uploads.
PHI was encrypted, but cipher suites varied by service. Key rotation lacked documented process and approvals. Some storage buckets were overly permissive for internal analytics jobs.
Policies existed but were incomplete or not mapped to HIPAA safeguards (administrative, physical, technical). Incident response steps were known by senior staff but not documented as a repeatable playbook.
Multi-state expansion amplified audit likelihood. Any lapse could result in penalties, breach notifications, and reduced patient and partner confidence.
In essence, the provider needed thorough testing, corrective hardening, formalized HIPAA controls, and an evidence backbone to pass audits without business disruption.
Zymr reframed HIPAA from a compliance hurdle into an operational capability. The provider now demonstrates privacy and security rigor to patients, payers, and partners, accelerating contracts and reducing risk. Security controls and evidence processes run alongside clinical operations rather than interrupting them.
The provider gained audit-ready assurance and confidence to scale telehealth services without sacrificing patient privacy or clinician productivity.
Beyond passing an audit, the organization now runs compliance as a routine—measured, teachable, and resilient to staff changes and product growth.
Zymr executed a comprehensive HIPAA security program: test, fix, formalize, and sustain.
We performed penetration tests on patient and clinician portals, mobile apps, and APIs. Findings included open debug endpoints, insufficient input validation in attachment handlers, long-lived refresh tokens, and permissive CORS on a legacy admin console. We validated that PHI never appeared in URLs, logs, or analytics payloads.
We standardized TLS 1.3 across services, enforced HSTS, and removed weak ciphers. At rest, we confirmed AES-256 and introduced envelope encryption for PHI in object storage. Key rotation moved to an HSM-integrated KMS with dual control and audit trails; access to key material was separated from app operators.
SCA and container scanning were embedded in CI/CD; IaC scanning covered security groups, storage ACLs, and secret management. Storage buckets with public ACLs were remediated; VPC endpoints restricted egress; private subnets used NAT with egress filtering.
We authored and aligned policies: access control, minimum necessary standard, breach response, data retention/destruction, and BAAs for vendors handling PHI. Incident response playbooks defined roles, notification timelines, and evidence capture. Tabletop exercises validated readiness. Staff training emphasized PHI handling, phishing recognition, and least privilege.
Quarterly vulnerability scans, monthly access certifications, and automated log reviews were scheduled. A compliance evidence repository mapped artifacts to HIPAA safeguards, simplifying audit prep. Dashboards gave leadership real-time status on control health and exceptions.
This approach delivered concrete risk reduction, formalized HIPAA safeguards, and a sustainable way to prove compliance on demand.
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