Dental IT, Cybersecurity & HIPAA Essentials with Dr. Lorne Lavine

Perfect.

I do have some questions around what is a managed service and all that stuff, but I'm going to hold those for now.

Okay.

I'm going to just jump into a comment you made before I talk about cybersecurity.

You said HIPAA is not something that really is something that dentists are excited about, at least in 2026 as we are recording this.

So is it like one out of a hundred who are into that kind of stuff right now? I'm just saying, you know, what are you seeing versus your other services?

Yeah, so it's still critical, and anyone that's gone through a HIPAA audit knows how bad it can be, and it's almost impossible to not go online and see news on a daily basis of some major organization that's been hit with some HIPAA fines and penalties for noncompliance.

It's still very much a factor.

What we have found from working directly with dentists is if I come in with the approach as, hey, work with us and I promise we can get you more HIPAA compliant, because there's no such thing as 100% compliance.

There's 700 pages of rules and regulations and impossible.

if our approach to an office is, hey, you know, the reason you want to work with me is I can get you more HIPAA compliant, I'm probably going to lose that client because they just don't, it doesn't concern them as much as I think it should.

I think the ADA has done a somewhat mediocre job of educating dentists on HIPAA compliance and what needs to be done and what happens if you're not compliant.

So, Our approach is to say, listen, we're going to listen to what an individual client's needs are, but typically when they come to me, they'll say, hey, I'm worried about ransomware.

I'm worried about my backup.

I wouldn't be able to recover if there was a disaster.

I'm worried that we don't have control over the data and what the staff are able to see.

I'm worried about this and that.

I can't sleep well at night, not about that.

will come in with the approach, okay, we can absolutely help with all this, and oh, by the way, you're not HIPAA compliant.

You're not doing the things that you should be.

The good news is that the things that I'm gonna do to get you more secure are also gonna get you more compliant.

It's basically killing two birds with one stone.

Because it's really the same set of rules and guidelines that you would use to get HIPAA compliant are also going to get you more cyber secure and protect and secure that patient information.

So they're very much interconnected.

So HIPAA is still there.

Perfect.

I do have some questions around what is a managed service and all that stuff, but I'm going to hold those for now.

Okay.

I'm going to just jump into a comment you made before I talk about cybersecurity.

You said HIPAA is not something that really is something that dentists are excited about, at least in 2026 as we are recording this.

So is it like one out of a hundred who are into that kind of stuff right now? I'm just saying, you know, what are you seeing versus your other services?

Yeah, so it's still critical, and anyone that's gone through a HIPAA audit knows how bad it can be, and it's almost impossible to not go online and see news on a daily basis of some major organization that's been hit with some HIPAA fines and penalties for noncompliance.

It's still very much a factor.

What we have found from working directly with dentists is if I come in with the approach as, hey, work with us and I promise we can get you more HIPAA compliant, because there's no such thing as 100% compliance.

There's 700 pages of rules and regulations and impossible.

if our approach to an office is, hey, you know, the reason you want to work with me is I can get you more HIPAA compliant, I'm probably going to lose that client because they just don't, it doesn't concern them as much as I think it should.

I think the ADA has done a somewhat mediocre job of educating dentists on HIPAA compliance and what needs to be done and what happens if you're not compliant.

So, Our approach is to say, listen, we're going to listen to what an individual client's needs are, but typically when they come to me, they'll say, hey, I'm worried about ransomware.

I'm worried about my backup.

I wouldn't be able to recover if there was a disaster.

I'm worried that we don't have control over the data and what the staff are able to see.

I'm worried about this and that.

I can't sleep well at night, not about that.

will come in with the approach, okay, we can absolutely help with all this, and oh, by the way, you're not HIPAA compliant.

You're not doing the things that you should be.

The good news is that the things that I'm gonna do to get you more secure are also gonna get you more compliant.

It's basically killing two birds with one stone.

Because it's really the same set of rules and guidelines that you would use to get HIPAA compliant are also going to get you more cyber secure and protect and secure that patient information.

So they're very much interconnected.

So HIPAA is still there.