E-mail protection plan

Mississippi Baptist Health Systems has enlisted the support of e-mail management and protection software to help it comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

The regional healthcare provider is launching a package of solutions from Zix Corporation. In an announcement regarding the deal, ZixCorp says that ZixAuditor will help Mississippi Baptist Health Systems audit its e-mail to validate compliance with HIPAA relating to e-mail. ZixPort will enable patients, partners and affiliates to secure communications through a Web-based portal. ZixWorks will manage the health system's e-messaging protection needs through encryption, anti-virus, anti-spam and content filtering service. ZixWorks also includes a HIPAA lexicon and update system to ensure Mississippi Baptist's ongoing compliance relating to protected health information (PHI).

"We knew we were nearing the HIPAA deadline and needed an e-mail security solution that fully met all of our needs, but we also wanted to address spam," says Rick Caldwell, CIO of Mississippi Baptist. "Since virtually all of our system handles sensitive PHI—including our physicians, nursing staff and business office—the HIPAA lexicon and hosted service of ZixWorks will enable us to freely communicate without worrying about private information accidentally getting through, and will prevent us from incurring the risks and costs we would have sustained had we deployed our own solution."