MARS-E compliance
For ACA Administration Providers
The Minimum Acceptable Risk Standards for Exchanges (MARS-E) framework outlines requirements for securing information systems that handle protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), and federal tax information (FTI). Whether you're new to MARS-E compliance or have been working with it since version 1.0, we’re here to help you navigate the requirements.
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MARS-E Compliance Service Options
The MARS-E security assessment helps organizations identify and mitigate risks to their health information. We offer a range of services designed to help our clients achieve full compliance with MARS-E standards.
- General consulting and training on MARS-E compliance requirements.
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Independent MARS-E security assessments
with steps for remediation. - Development and documentation of System Security Plans (SSPs).
- Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) development. Learn our methodology for developing and managing your plan.
- POA&M maintenance. We keep your plan up to date with your business needs.
MARS-E History: Key Information You Need to Know.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(ACA) of 2010 established federal and state
health insurance exchanges (HIXs or
marketplaces). One key requirement of the ACA
was for the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) to develop data security
standards. In response, in 2012, the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a part of
HHS, published the Minimum Acceptable Risk
Standards for Exchanges (MARS-E). These
standards are designed to meet ACA requirements
related to information security. The original
MARS-E controls were based on NIST Special
Publication 800-53 Revision 3, and in 2015,
MARS-E 2.0 was released to align with updates in
NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4.
The
MARS-E security control requirements are
organized into 17 control families, as outlined
in NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4:
- Access Control (AC)
- Awareness and Training (AT)
- Audit and Accountability (AU)
- Security Assessment and Authorization (CA)
- Configuration Management (CM)
- Contingency Planning (CP)
- Identification and Authentication (IA)
- Incident Response (IR)
- Maintenance (MA)
- Media Protection (MP)
- Physical and Environmental Protection (PE)
- Planning (PL)
- Personnel Security (PS)
- Risk Assessment (RA)
- System and Services Acquisition (SA)
- System and Communications Protection (SC)
- System and Information Integrity (SI)
- Program Management (PM)
In addition to MARS-E, there may be additional, more stringent security safeguards required if the system handles Federal Tax Information (FTI). These extra requirements are outlined in IRS Publication 1075 and documented in Table A-1 of MARS-E 2.0 Volume III.
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