Compliance and protection for pharmacy owners

Chris Schramm

A pizza joint has to worry about PCI compliance. PCI Compliance is securing their customer’s credit card and personal information. A hospital has to worry about HIPAA compliance. HIPAA compliance is securing a patient’s personal information.

What if you have to worry about both?

Pharmacies are in this unique situation. They are receiving information on a customer’s prescription. This falls under HIPAA. They then have to charge the customer via credit card. This falls under PCI.

Which one is more important?

That’s a loaded question. A violation of either can result is massive fees, fines and bad PR. So both are equal and extremely important. A slip up, and you could lose your pharmacy. Fees, fines and loss of business can often stretch over $100,000 following a violation.

So the best answer? Protect yourself today.

Why do you get car insurance? Why don’t you drive around uninsured? Because you know one accident can result in repairs, hospital bills and lawsuits. 

HIPAA and PCI Compliance work almost the same. You can want to protect yourself in case of a problem. But this protection is more than just setting up a safekeeping against fines and fees. This protection includes training, documents, and other tools to achieve compliance.

Even if you have something like data breach protection in place, you still want to take precautions to prevent a breach. The protection won’t cover something like the loss of business.

Just because you have insurance doesn’t mean you drive like a mad man. So take the same precaution with your business.