Video Encryption Requirements

The big question – What are the specific HIPAA requirements for securing or encrypting video conferencing communication? Wherever healthcare and technology overlap the privacy and security of electronic transactions are governed by the Health Care & Portability Act. The use of video conferencing technology in health care is common practice today. Telemedine and Telehealth are used all over the country but specific HIPAA guidelines for encrypting video conferencing communications do not exist. My interpretation of the HIPAA rules as they apply to video conferencing are simply to treat the video conference connection like any other PHI data stream. All the major VC players seem to be using 128 bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). A 128bit encryption key is the minimum key size you can use for secure video communication and still maintain compliance.


Data communications are generally secured using 256 AES. The smaller 128 bit video encryption key algorithm is probably better suited for real-time video communications.

Some popular choices often used in secure unified communication systems are:
LifeSize Video Conferencing Products
Polycom Video Conferencing Products
Vidyo Video Conferencing Products

HIPAA Encryption Software

There term “HIPAA Encryption Software” is pretty generic and can refer to a lot of different encryption products. The key to selecting the right solution for your organization largely depends on your organizations infrastructure. Deploying system wide solutions can be expensive. Many large institutions are able to leverage volume license discounts. Smaller organizations often find themselves somewhat behind the eight ball with regard to paying for the necessary level of encryption software to maintain HIPAA compliance.

We looked at several competing software solutions. The one common thing we noticed right away was that all of them claim to be 100% HIPAA compliant. Protecting confidential records with any new software solution will require some level of training. This is the one area we found to be lacking with a lot of out of the box healthcare security software solutions. While we will not make a specific HIPAA Encryption software recommendation here we do encourage our readers to compare at least four competing companies and then take a serious look at the many open source solutions. Knowing how each company structures there offerings will help you negotiate the best deal for your situation.