ABSTRACT
What is a Third Party in Healthcare? Healthcare involves a variety of stakeholders-each of whom has a responsibility to safeguard the sensitive data with which it is entrusted. For purposes of the following discussion, the entity that has the direct relationship with the patient will be referred to as the primary entity. That could be a doctor, hospital, pharmacy, or health insurance company (also known as a payer). Any entity to which the primary entity sources a function or functions is considered a thirdparty vendor. In the United States, this relationship would be defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as the covered entity (primary entity) and the business associate (third party) that will be using, storing, or transmitting Protected Health Information (PHI).
