Breaking Down the Economic Benefits of the HITRUST Framework and Certification

Key Takeaways

• Business Growth: HITRUST certification helps organizations gain customer trust, meet industry expectations, and accelerate revenue growth through market differentiation.
• Stronger Risk Management: The HITRUST framework enables organizations to identify and address security gaps, improve audit readiness, and reduce regulatory and cybersecurity risks.
• Operational Efficiency: HITRUST streamlines compliance by aligning with multiple requirements, reducing redundancy, and improving resource use across the organization.

In today’s ever evolving world of information technology risks and threats, cybersecurity should be the number one priority for organizations across all industries. The high volume of sensitive data being stored, transmitted, and processed requires organizations to constantly adapt to new risks and threats through rigorous security measures.

The gold standard of IT security frameworks for ensuring data protection and compliance is HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance). A HITRUST assessment provides organizations with a method to assess their cybersecurity practices and posture. In addition, a HITRUST assessment demonstrates an organization’s commitment to data privacy and security, particularly in industries such as healthcare, finance, and government. Given the commitment required to complete a HITRUST assessment and certification, let’s analyze the benefits of a HITRUST assessment.

The primary benefits an organization can expect to receive by investing in compliance with the HITRUST framework and certification are business growth, risk management and mitigation, and operational efficiency.

Business Growth

Organizations that have prioritized compliance with the HITRUST framework through the certification process implement data privacy and security practices that meet the ever-increasing expectations in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare and financial services. By placing an emphasis on the HITRUST framework and certification, organizations have improved their ability to retain clients and customers, meet or exceed third-party requirements for risk, and streamline the new customer and client onboarding process.

HITRUST assessments certainly provided a method to increase business growth opportunities by providing the gold standard in security frameworks, an independently validated assessment with the required practices within the HITRUST framework and certification that demonstrates the organization’s commitment to mature security practices. HITRUST recently released an analysis of the economic benefits to organizations that have a HITRUST certification. The analysis noted that one specific organization was able to double their revenue after getting HITRUST certified. The analysis noted organizations receiving a HITRUST certification see growth through strengthened customer trust, accelerated procurement cycles, and market differentiation.

Risk Management and Mitigation

Managing and mitigating risk requires that organizations implement a well-defined and methodical process for cybersecurity practices, as well as maintain compliance with those practices. Risk management/risk reduction has been an increasingly hot topic across all industries in recent years. However, some industries, such as healthcare and financial services, operate in highly regulated sectors with high inherent risk. The HITRUST framework and certification has demonstrated that implementing a comprehensive, risk-based, prescriptive framework not only helps organization assess risk but also allows those same organizations to assess control deficiencies, implement robust controls, and achieve compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.

The HITRUST analysis of the economic benefits of a HITRUST certification noted that organizations with HITRUST certifications in place had substantially more confidence in the operational effectiveness of their controls, specifically related to audits, compliance violations, and breaches. The HITRUST framework allows organizations to manage and reduce risks through requiring the implementation of comprehensive risk management, regulatory compliance and an overall stronger security posture.

Operational Efficiency

The HITRUST analysis of the economic benefits of achieving certification also noted operational efficiency as a primary benefit of the HITRUST framework. Given the constant competitive and economic pressures on all organizations across all industries, operating efficiently remains a priority for all organizations. The constantly evolving regulatory environment coupled with the presence of new risks and threats require organizations to achieve complex compliance requirements.

The HITRUST framework offers organizations an opportunity to streamline the varying compliance requirements through a structured framework that reduces the compliance efforts through less redundancy and allows for improved allocations of resources. Organizations implementing the HITRUST framework and certification can save time through HITRUST control mappings which allows for the controls to map to multiple regulatory and compliance frameworks. HITRUST control mapping allows organizations to meet multiple frameworks and audits through an efficient process that only requires the evidence to be collected once. HITRUST noted in the economic benefit analysis that operational efficiencies are achieved through streamlined compliance management, reduced audit preparation time, and improved organizational coordination.

Overall Benefits

In a world where cybersecurity risks are pervasive, organizations can greatly benefit from conducting HITRUST assessments. The HITRUST framework and certification provide a robust, comprehensive, and adaptable framework for improving security. The economic benefits go beyond just improving security, as noted above with business growth, better risk management and mitigation, and improved operational efficiency. As cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, HITRUST assessment is a vital tool for organizations looking to protect sensitive data and ensure long-term business success.

McKonly & Asbury is a HITRUST-approved external assessor. For more information on how HITRUST assessment and certification can help your organization, be sure to visit our HITRUST and SOC services pages, and please contact Dave Hammarberg, CPA, CISSP, CFE, MCSE, CISA, CCSFP, CHQP.

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