Verizon (News - Alert) has announced that some of its call center solutions have been upgraded to comply with HIPAA regulations. These changes will allow healthcare-related businesses, once limited by regulations and technology, to provide better support to customers when sharing private health information (PHI). CSRs will also be able to provide multichannel support with these solutions and still be compliant.

For many people, Verizon is probably not the first company that comes to mind when discussing the issue of protecting PHI, yet it’s an important part of their enterprise services. Many businesses use Verizon’s cloud and data center services, including those in the healthcare sector.

In the process of treating a patient, PHI could be shared among multiple professionals across many different sites. While the cloud can facilitate this collaboration, sensitive information has to be protected.

In a report it compiled recently, Verizon identified several areas where data breaches occur in the healthcare industry. Theft and loss was by far and away the biggest cause, totaling 46 percent of all causes. Insider misuse and miscellaneous errors rounded out the top three causes.

Verizon offers two services it calls Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Data Discovery, Identification and Security Classification (DDISC) to address deliberate or inadvertent loss of data. Another service called Identity and Access Management makes it easier to manage usage rights of any employee working with sensitive data.

As tight as Verizon’s call center system for healthcare businesses is at controlling PHI, it is flexible enough to handle the modern demands of a customer that expects multichannel support. Customers can get support through chat, social media and online as well as by phone.

HIPAA compliance is such a complex and extensive undertaking for most businesses that to manage it themselves is beyond unwieldy. Companies like Verizon have more expertise when it comes to network security and are usually better-equipped to manage call center and other enterprise-level data centers, especially with sensitive information.

Many people and businesses would not do their own taxes because of the complexity and potential consequences of getting it wrong. The same goes for any operation that uses PHI. A company that chooses to manage this on their own will have a high burden of proof to overcome to convince shareholders, regulators and even the general public that it made the right decision.