As most of us in the healthcare IT sphere know, telehealth adoption has exploded thanks to COVID-19. In fact, according to a recent survey from our client Kyruus, 75% of patients had their first virtual visit in 2020 and Frost & Sullivan forecasts a sevenfold growth in telehealth usage by 2025.

At the start of the pandemic, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) eased some HIPAA security rules to aid with the rapid shift to virtual care, particularly specifically allowing health systems to use non-compliant remote communication technology such as Zoom, Skype or FaceTime without facing penalties. While the move sped up the adoption of telemedicine, it didn’t eliminate the security and privacy risks associated with them.