Securing an Unprotected Network at Corporate HEALTHPLUS

Passing data via the Internet has become vital in today's health care arena. From doctors transmitting patient x-rays and records to insurance claims, managing data is a huge undertaking. Couple that with the Health Industry Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and using the Internet has become even more of a risk without employing acceptable data encryption standards.

Customer Needs

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Corporate HEALTHPLUS+ Management manages four acute-care hospitals in Houston and Los Angeles that host the data management center for the entire system.

Before Time Warner Telecom's solution, Corporate HEALTHPLUS used a frame solution to link all four hospitals to the Houston hub. The Los Angeles hospital had to send data to the primary host where all data was aggregated and then relayed back to the Corporate HEALTHPLUS headquarters. This inefficient network architecture tied up their bandwidth and did not provide the necessary encryption required in the healthcare industry.

The Solution

To help the customer, Time Warner Telecom provided their Managed Security Services Solution, a much needed Internet Protocol Security Virtual Private Network (IPSec VPN).

CIO for Corporate HEALTHPLUS worked with Time Warner Telecom's local Account Executive and Time Warner Telecom's local Network Specialist to come up with a better answer which involved using Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) based managed security solution to provide IPSec VPN functionality. The IPSec VPN used the data encryption, 3DES, to protect the mission critical information that was sent across the Internet.

In addition, Time Warner Telecom updated the network architecture to allow data to directly pass from each hospital to the headquarters without having to be aggregated first before going back to the central office. This allowed a direct connection to the corporate office. In addition, the IPSec VPN provided the data encryption for all those valuable data packets traveling between the sites.

What value has Time Warner Telecom's Managed Security provided to Corporate HEALTHPLUS? Now their mission critical data is redundant and efficiently routed through the network, which has assisted them in complying with government mandated HIPAA regulations and the ability to conduct their business faster and more efficiently.

Options

Each Time Warner Telecom customer receives an initial security consultation with a managed security services professional that helps to determine the most viable configuration based on the customer's specific business needs.

When it's time to install the service, Time Warner Telecom's technicians provide on-site installation of the customer premise device. Additional service benefits include 24 x 7 x 365 monitoring and response and monthly executive reports.

Find out if Time Warner Telecom's CPE based Managed Security Service is right for your business. Contact your Time Warner Telecom account representative or e-mailing sara.miller@twtelecom.com.

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