Trace Id is missing
August 24, 2023

Teladoc Health streamlines compliance for global virtual healthcare scale, powered by HITRUST and Microsoft Azure

Healthcare systems around the world are unsustainable. The global pandemic has only exacerbated existing staffing and physician shortages, increased cost pressures, and increased service backlog and capacity issues. For global virtual care company, Teladoc Health, the partnership between HITRUST and Microsoft enables data security, ensures regulatory compliance, and helps their platform maintain and grow trust with partners and patients.

HITRUST

“Through our partnership with Microsoft, organizations can reach certification even more quickly by using inheritance to import control testing results and scores from Microsoft's existing HITRUST assessments.”

Kristin Cloy, Senior Director of Cloud Partner Development, HITRUST

HITRUST provides information privacy and security certification assessments that help companies ensure compliance and alignment to best practices, so they can work smoothly knowing their data is secure—and go to market with confidence. As a gold standard in the industry, HITRUST assessments provide comprehensive coverage and deep oversight that ensures accuracy. “A HITRUST certification enables a customer to be able to go out and show their relying parties and their customers that they're meeting compliance requirements,” says Kristin Cloy, Senior Director of Cloud Partner Development at HITRUST.

To help healthcare companies reach certification even more quickly, HITRUST has partnered with Microsoft to enable shared responsibilities and inheritance. Together, they’re working to advance existing HITRUST assessments that align Microsoft cloud platforms to HITRUST CSF v11, as well as build pilot programs to drive efficiency and enable global healthcare compliance scale, accelerating solution adoption and time-to-value. “Through our partnership with Microsoft, organizations can reach certification even more quickly by using inheritance to import control testing results and scores from Microsoft's existing HITRUST assessments,” Cloy says. For global virtual care company, Teladoc Health, the partnership between HITRUST and Microsoft enables data security, ensures regulatory compliance, and helps their platform maintain and grow trust with partners and patients. This Global Healthcare Compliance Scale Initiative powered by HITRUST’s Compliance Insights Report empowers Teladoc Health to leverage their existing HITRUST assessment to bring clarity on compliance requirements to customers globally in the context of customers’ local regulations, data protection laws, and privacy & security standards. This new capability allows customers to view the compliance requirements fulfilled by Teladoc Health and Microsoft, as well as those that are the responsibility of the customer. "By providing clear and concise information on how security, privacy, and compliance requirements are met, our partners and customers can more confidently deploy solutions, laying a secure foundation for future healthcare innovation," says John Doyle, Global CTO for Healthcare & Life Sciences at Microsoft. 

Taking healthcare online

“Teladoc Health is the leading global virtual care company,” says Tim Wright, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Teladoc Health. “Our mission is to empower people everywhere to live their healthiest lives.” Teladoc Health does this through virtual care models, which Wright says allows them to address many of the key challenges facing the healthcare sector. Providing virtual care “unblocks the historic barriers to access. It enables new clinical workflows that are more efficient for care providers and much more responsive to patient preferences. You can deliver healthcare services where and when people want them,” Wright says. By providing both direct patient care via Teladoc Health virtual doctor and coaches as well as software and technological solutions to client who want to build their own virtual care programs, Teladoc Health seeks to revolutionize healthcare by making it more widely accessible without sacrificing quality, data security or regulatory compliance.

By moving care online, Teladoc Health faces key questions from partners and patients about the safety and management of their data. When new partners seek to work with Teladoc Health, they always ask about data safety and compliance. “Our challenge as a healthcare provider and technology solution is making sure that our clients are satisfied and confident that we are doing all the right things,” says Wright. This includes everything from how Teladoc Health stores and protects patient data to how it designs, tests and optimizes its software and solutions. 

To ensure the security and compliance of its offerings, Teladoc Health leans on HITRUST. 

Creating common ground

HITRUST created and maintains its CSF framework, which has been widely adopted across the healthcare industry by tech companies and healthcare organizations alike. This framework streamlines the assessment and communication process between parties to allow for confident collaboration. According to Wright, “HITRUST has established a common language for a compliance conversation between a technology company and a healthcare company. It gives us a common set of tools that we use, and frankly, it gives both of us higher confidence in our partner and in our joint ability to remain compliant, to remain secure.” 

HITRUST enables more efficient partnerships built on trust. “We have to hold ourselves accountable and hold our clients accountable for maintaining a high level of privacy and security,” says Wright. With cybercrime on the rise, especially in the healthcare sector, everyone needs reassurance and real solutions that ensure safety. “We invest heavily in maintaining the highest standards we can in both security and compliance,” Wright explains. By working with globally recognized HITRUST, Teladoc Health can deliver on its promise to make healthcare secure, even when it’s delivered virtually.

Specifically, the HITRUST Compliance Insights Report will provide a comprehensive approach to conversations both domestically and abroad, where regulations vary, so partners like Teladoc Health can readily communicate their security and compliance practices. “When a customer, like Teladoc Health, chooses to have a HITRUST certification and they're running in Microsoft Azure, that allows them to move quickly with their security and compliance requirements, allowing them to get to market faster and have higher solution adoption," says Cloy. In time, HITRUST hopes that such reports may also help organizations better understand how their regulations are interpreted in global regulatory contexts.

Bringing a partner-first approach

A unique symbiosis occurs as Teladoc Health uses new HITRUST reports and programs to provide accurate, contextual feedback that helps improve processes for everyone. “It’s been really great to have Teladoc Health as a partner,” says Cloy, “particularly when it comes to programs we’re running with Microsoft.” The collaborative effort from all parties helps everyone realize “where we should head next,” she says. For partners like Teladoc Health, the widespread impact of Microsoft solutions makes all the difference. As Wright puts it, “The whole breadth of Microsoft solutions is available in one place, is transactable in one place, and the vision of what's possible is on display in one location. I think the opportunity is there, and now we need to demonstrate what's really possible in healthcare.” 

As HITRUST continues to help organizations meet compliance requirements around the world, they’re developing specific pilot programs for regulations in Canada and Europe with Microsoft. By enabling the purchase of HITRUST solutions via the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace, HITRUST enables their customers to purchase their solutions in ways that are eligible for Azure Benefits and make sense for their budgets. When a customer achieves a HITRUST certification, they can rest assured that they are safe and secure—and that they’ve put all the right checks in place to ensure mature, reliable compliance.

“When a customer, like Teladoc Health, chooses to have a HITRUST certification and they're running in Microsoft Azure, that allows them to move quickly with their security and compliance requirements, allowing them to get to market faster and have higher solution adoption.”

Kristin Cloy, Senior Director of Cloud Partner Development, HITRUST

Discover more details

ORGANIZATION SIZE
COUNTRY/REGION
BUSINESS NEED
Take the next step

Fuel innovation with Microsoft

Talk to an expert about custom solutions

Let us help you create customized solutions and achieve your unique business goals.

Drive results with proven solutions

Achieve more with the products and solutions that helped our customers reach their goals.

Follow Microsoft