A practitioner-led SRA built by the same team that serves as OCR’s expert witness firm, tested against the standard OCR applies in an actual investigation.
A security risk assessment is among the most consequential investments a healthcare organization can make, and one of the most inconsistently delivered. Meditology approaches it differently: a rigorous, outcomes-driven analysis built by practitioners who have spent careers inside healthcare organizations, navigating the same regulatory pressures, operational constraints, and threat landscape your team faces every day.
HIPAA compliance is a continuous, interpretive practice shaped by regulatory guidance, enforcement trends, and organizational realities that no checklist can fully capture. Compliance is not a binary state, and assessments that treat it like one leave you exposed.
Most security risk assessments stop at a control checklist. They produce a binder that satisfies a line item but does little to inform executive decisions, prioritize security spend, or hold up under real scrutiny, whether that scrutiny comes from a regulator, an auditor, or a customer’s own security team. For a CISO, that means risk remains a compliance exercise. For a Chief Compliance Officer, it means an SRA that doesn’t demonstrate the reasonable, documented diligence Office for Civil Rights (OCR) expects in an audit or breach investigation, or that a prospective customer expects to see before signing.
Meditology’s Security Risk Assessment methodology is developed in alignment with the Health and Human Services (HHS) OCR published guidance and enforcement posture, HIPAA Security Rule Security Risk Analysis requirements, and NIST SP 800-30 Rev. 1, Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments. The result is an SRA that satisfies the letter of the HIPAA Security Rule (45 CFR §164.302 through §164.318) and the evidentiary standard OCR expects in the event of an audit or breach investigation.
Because healthcare organizations rarely answer to one framework alone, the methodology is correlated to meet leading assurance frameworks, including HITRUST CSF, SOC 2 Type 2, and, for organizations pursuing federal contract eligibility, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), so your assessment investment continues to generate value across your compliance portfolio.
Every engagement moves through five stages, calibrated to your environment, your risk profile, and the frameworks that matter most to your business:
We define the assessment boundary against your environment: systems, facilities, business units, and the electronic protected health information (ePHI) in scope.
We evaluate risk including threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood, impact, and resulting risk after gathering evidence the way OCR would expect to see it.
We produce a tailored risk analysis that reflects the true posture of your organization, identifying gaps at the intersection of policy, process, and technology where risk most often lives.
We deliver findings with data visualization and peer benchmark comparisons that inform executive decision-making and shape security investment priorities.
We translate findings into practical, prioritized remediation guidance your team can execute, sequenced by risk.
A HIPAA Security Rule risk analysis is a regulatory requirement, which is why most of them are written to satisfy a regulator and nothing else. The organizations that treat it that way leave most of the value unclaimed.
We scope the analysis so its output is reusable: findings mapped to the frameworks your certifications already use, prioritized by clinical and operational impact, and structured to feed HITRUST, SOC 2, or CMMC work rather than sit beside it.
Our assessors are former healthcare CISOs and compliance leaders. The judgment calls in a risk analysis, what counts as reasonable and appropriate for an organization your size, are made by people who have defended those calls.
One persistent challenge for healthcare security leaders is situating their risk posture within a relevant industry context. Are your gaps common across peers, or are you an outlier? How does your maturity compare to organizations of similar size, complexity, or regulatory profile? Without that perspective, strategic planning happens without reference points.
Having conducted assessments across hundreds of healthcare organizations, spanning health systems, academic medical centers, payer organizations, physician groups, and health IT vendors, Meditology brings benchmarking insight to every engagement.
Healthcare organizations increasingly need risk visibility beyond the core HIPAA Security Rule SRA. Meditology delivers these assessment types with the same practitioner-led methodology and cross-framework correlation, so a single engagement can cover more ground.
Scoped to your organization’s AI footprint: the models in use, the data they touch, the workflows they support, and the governance structures overseeing them. Covers AI governance and oversight, model and data risk, and third-party AI risk, since many healthcare organizations rely on AI embedded in vendor platforms and EHR systems. Findings map to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF), ISO/IEC 42001, and emerging healthcare-specific guidance. See our AI Security Assessments page.
NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 for program development and maturity measurement across all five functions; NIST SP 800-53 for organizations requiring comprehensive control alignment, including federal contractors and those pursuing FedRAMP authorization; and NIST SP 800-171 with CMMC readiness for organizations pursuing Department of Defense contract eligibility. See our NIST Framework Alignment page.
Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) under Section 405(d) of the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, built by healthcare organizations for healthcare organizations and grounded in the sector’s real operational and clinical landscape rather than adapted from a generic IT framework. HICP is structured for organizations of varying size and complexity, and OCR has signaled recognition of it as a basis for demonstrating reasonable security practices. See our 405(d) page.
Evaluates whether your organization’s use and disclosure of PHI holds up against the HIPAA Privacy Rule: patient rights, minimum necessary use, consent and authorization practices, and business associate obligations. Complements the Security Rule focus of the SRA above, since a strong security posture doesn’t guarantee privacy compliance, and organizations are frequently required to demonstrate both. See our Privacy Risk Assessment page.
A healthcare risk assessment is a formal, structured process for identifying threats to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of protected health information (PHI), evaluating the likelihood and potential impact of those threats, and documenting the findings in a way that informs both compliance obligations and security program decisions. Under the HIPAA Security Rule, the risk analysis is not optional. It is the foundational requirement from which nearly every other Security Rule obligation flows. That said, a well-executed risk assessment is more than a compliance artifact. It is a practical diagnostic of where your organization is most exposed, which threats are most relevant to your specific environment, and where security investments will produce the most meaningful reduction in risk.
Meditology Perspective: Meditology’s assessments are built to produce findings that drive decisions rather than findings that only fill a binder. Every engagement is calibrated to your specific environment, your regulatory context, and the operational realities of your organization, so the output reflects your actual risk posture rather than a generic control inventory.
The HIPAA Security Rule applies to covered entities and their business associates. That scope is broader than many organizations initially assume. Beyond the HIPAA baseline, organizations pursuing HITRUST certification, SOC 2 attestation, CMMC compliance, or participation in certain federal health programs will find that a documented, defensible risk assessment is either a prerequisite or a core evaluation component of those frameworks. In practical terms: if your organization touches PHI in any capacity, a risk assessment is both a legal requirement and a foundational operational necessity. The size of the organization does not change the obligation. The scope and complexity of the assessment should be calibrated to the organization’s size and risk profile, but the requirement itself is universal.
Meditology Perspective: Meditology works with organizations across the full spectrum of healthcare, from large integrated health systems to specialty practices, payers, and health IT vendors. Regardless of size or organizational type, the core question is the same: do you have a clear, current, and defensible picture of your risk posture? If not, that is where we start.
Healthcare risk assessments can be conducted against several different frameworks, and the right choice depends on your organization’s regulatory obligations, existing program investments, assurance goals, and reporting requirements. Meditology structures assessments to align with the framework that best fits your priorities rather than defaulting to a single approach.
Meditology Perspective: Meditology’s assessments are framework-agnostic in the best sense: we align with the structure your organization has prioritized and ensure the methodology satisfies OCR’s risk analysis expectations regardless of which framework governs the evaluation. We do not impose a framework. We speak your language.
The most obvious benefit is regulatory compliance: a documented, defensible risk analysis satisfies the foundational requirement of the HIPAA Security Rule and forms the evidentiary basis for the broader compliance program. But the organizations that treat risk assessments only as compliance exercises leave most of the value on the table.
Meditology Perspective: Meditology’s assessments are designed to produce findings that work across all of these functions simultaneously. The same engagement that satisfies your HIPAA risk analysis requirement also generates the data needed for board reporting, investment prioritization, and multi-year program planning.
The HIPAA Security Rule requires that risk analyses be conducted periodically, but does not specify a fixed frequency. In practice, OCR’s enforcement record and published guidance point clearly toward an annual assessment cycle as the appropriate baseline for most organizations. Beyond the annual cycle, certain triggering events should prompt a risk assessment review outside of the regular schedule: new technology systems that touch ePHI, significant changes to clinical or business workflows, mergers and acquisitions, entry into new lines of business, post-incident review, and significant shifts in the threat landscape.
Meditology Perspective: Organizations that approach risk assessment as an annual point-in-time event rather than a continuous program discipline consistently find themselves with a documented risk posture that lags their actual exposure. Meditology’s ongoing advisory clients maintain a living risk program updated throughout the year, with formal assessment cycles anchoring the process.
Security risk assessments and privacy risk assessments are related but distinct instruments. They are both required for a complete HIPAA compliance program and are frequently confused or conflated, but they answer different questions. A security risk assessment tells you whether your systems, controls, and operational practices adequately protect ePHI from unauthorized access, alteration, or loss. A privacy risk assessment tells you whether the ways your organization uses and shares PHI are consistent with patient rights, consent obligations, and the minimum necessary standard. An organization can have a strong security posture and still carry significant privacy risk. For a complete picture of HIPAA compliance posture, both assessments are necessary and should be treated as part of an integrated program.
Meditology Perspective: Meditology addresses both security and privacy risk across our advisory practice. Our teams include practitioners with deep expertise in both disciplines, and we regularly support organizations in conducting integrated programs that satisfy Security Rule and Privacy Rule requirements without duplicating effort or creating disconnected findings.
Schedule a 30-minute conversation to walk through your current HIPAA Security Rule posture and identify where a practitioner-led SRA will reduce the most risk.
