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Membership In The Healthcare Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group

Voting Member Eligibility Criteria

“Owner-Operator” Voting Members are eligible to vote for and hold leadership positions and vote as necessary on work products that come before the full working group.  The HSCC CWG charter identifies Regular (Voting) Members as those owner-operators that are:

1) “covered entities” or “business associates” as defined by HIPAA;

2) companies whose technology and products (medical devices, pharmaceuticals and life sciences) are regulated by FDA;

3) health plans and insurance subject to HIPAA;

4) health I.T. organizations subject to interoperability requirements;

5) public health agencies; and

6) the industry associations that represent eligible members.

These eligibility criteria align with the definition of “critical infrastructure owners and operators” as promulgated by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency which oversees the national public private partnership that involves HSCC and all other critical infrastructure sectors. Specifically, “critical infrastructure owners and operators are those entities that own and invest in infrastructure assets, in the systems and processes to secure them, and that are held responsible by the public for their operations and response and recovery when their infrastructures or key resources are disrupted.”

Member representatives in the HSCC CWG are multi-disciplinary, including those responsible for:

  • Cybersecurity risk management
  • Product security
  • Information and data management
  • Information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) security
  • Incident response and business continuity
  • Third-party and supply chain cybersecurity
  • Privacy and security compliance
  • Policy, regulatory and legal affairs

Non-voting Advisor-Member Eligibility Criteria

Vendors, consultants, law firms and others that do not meet government-regulated Voting-Member criteria are in the “Advisor” category of membership. Many Advisors have valuable expertise and reach in the health sector and are invited by CWG leadership to join and participate in task group activities at the invitation of CWG leadership, but may not hold leadership positions, vote in elections, or vote on any issues/publications that may come before the membership for approval. Advisors may not use the HSCC as a platform for business development or seek to steer best practices, recommendations or other work products toward any proprietary solutions that are commercially beneficial to the Advisor or other Voting Members or Advisors. Advisor organizations are capped at 15% of the private-sector membership and are evaluated annually for continued membership based on their participation.

Cost to Join

There is no cost to join the HSCC.  Under the framework of our public-private partnership, government agencies cannot engage regularly with sector coordinating councils as formal partners if we charged dues as a condition for membership. Doing so would be considered exclusionary and potentially unrepresentative of the sector as a whole. The only cost to joining may be considered “sweat equity.” Active participation is expected and beneficial to all involved, but not compulsory for Voting Members. Advisor members are expected to participate in at least 50% of the active task group(s) they have joined.

Inquire About Membership

To inquire about membership or request to be added to our mailing list, please contact us.  Membership-onboarding typically requires a 30-40 minute orientation call with the executive director to align mutual expectations.