Enhancing Connectivity: HealthEdge’s High-Speed Solutions for Secure, Seamless Data Transfer

In today’s fast-paced environment, where data transfer is vital for efficient operations, HealthEdge recognizes the importance of providing high-speed connectivity options to its customers. While the standard VPN connection has served well in the past, it may not always meet the needs of customers requiring rapid and large-scale data transfers. To address this challenge, HealthEdge offers a dedicated point-to-point circuit, enabling superior performance, monitoring capabilities, and troubleshooting between HealthEdge and customer data centers. In this blog post, we will explore the market and business background of HealthEdge’s high-speed connectivity options, the associated benefits and differentiation, as well as how these solutions work.

A Bit of Background

Historically, HealthEdge’s software solutions have relied on VPN connections to connect with customer data centers. While VPNs have been effective for many customers, they do pose constraints when it comes to transferring large amounts of data quickly. HealthEdge now offers high-speed connectivity options to cater to the specific needs of customers with demanding data transfer requirements. By providing dedicated point-to-point circuits, HealthEdge ensures that customers can transfer data swiftly, enhancing operational efficiency and minimizing any bottlenecks that may arise from slower connections.

Top 5 Value Points of High-Speed Connectivity

HealthEdge’s high-speed connectivity options come with several significant benefits that set them apart from traditional VPN connections. Let’s explore some of these benefits:

1. Secure User Authentication: HealthEdge employs OpenID Connect and/or SAML2.0 protocols for user authentication. These protocols are industry-standard and provide a secure and open authentication framework. By leveraging SAML and OpenID Connect, HealthEdge enables customers to authenticate users via a secure Identity Provider (IdP) managed by the customers themselves. This approach ensures that sensitive credentials are only sent directly to the customer’s IdP, enhancing privacy and minimizing the risk of storing data within the application.
2. Payer Authentication Delegated to Customer’s IdP: HealthEdge’s high-speed connectivity options allow customers to apply their own password policies independently, without HealthEdge’s involvement. Additionally, by relying on the customer’s chosen IdP, which specializes in secure industry-standard authentication, the burden of implementing and maintaining advanced security methods rests with the IdP. This arrangement ensures that customer data remains safeguarded while benefiting from the economies of scale and expertise provided by the IdP.
3. Multifactor Authentication (MFA): HealthEdge supports the use of Multifactor Authentication as an optional layer of security. MFA requires users to provide two or more categories of authentication to verify their identity. This can include something the user possesses (e.g., a unique token from a third-party application) or something they are (e.g., a fingerprint or retinal scan) along with a standard user ID and password. By implementing MFA, HealthEdge adds an extra layer of security, ensuring that access to sensitive data, such as ePHI (electronic Protected Health Information), is limited to authorized personnel only. This aligns with regulatory requirements such as HIPAA compliance.
4. Just-in-Time (JIT) User Provisioning: HealthEdge’s high-speed connectivity options streamline user access management and identity governance. JIT user provisioning automates the process of managing users in the health plan’s system, saving time and reducing the workload for administrators. This efficient approach frees up valuable resources for other critical tasks.
5. One-Time Single Sign-On (SSO) Configuration: HealthEdge’s SSO configuration is a one-time activity. Once implemented, the same configuration works seamlessly across all of the health plan’s environments, including Production, Pre-Prod, UAT, Dev, and Test. This externalized configuration approach accelerates deployments and upgrades and reduces operational costs.

How it Works

To initiate the process, HealthEdge first assesses the best carrier option available in the geographic area. Based on this evaluation, HealthEdge will order a dedicated circuit from the chosen carrier. The dedicated circuit serves as the primary connection, enabling high-speed data transfer between HealthEdge and customer networks.

Once the carrier is selected and the circuit is ordered, HealthEdge provides the customer with connection details, including addresses and routing information. The customer is responsible for setting up a Layer 3 connection point within their data center. This connection point serves as the entry point for the dedicated circuit and facilitates the transfer of data between HealthEdge and the customer’s infrastructure.

In addition to the connection point, a Network Address Translation (NAT) IP address is required as an endpoint for routing traffic. The NAT IP address ensures that data is directed correctly between HealthEdge and the customer’s networks, enhancing the efficiency of data transfer.

The dedicated circuit serves as the primary connection between HealthEdge and the customer networks. This dedicated circuit offers superior performance and reliability, ensuring fast and uninterrupted data transfer. However, to further enhance resilience, HealthEdge also establishes an IPsec VPN tunnel as a passive redundant connection. In the event of the dedicated circuit becoming unavailable, the IPsec VPN tunnel acts as a backup, enabling continued data transfer.

Moreover, HealthEdge maintains a secondary IPsec VPN tunnel. This secondary tunnel remains disabled under normal circumstances. However, it can be enabled if the primary data center experiences an outage or during disaster recovery testing. By leveraging this setup, HealthEdge ensures continuous connectivity and data transfer, even in the face of unexpected disruptions.

To learn more about how HealthEdge’s new high-speed connectivity offering, visit www.healthedge.com or email us at [email protected].